Boston Celtics

Gordon Hayward opens up about his injury and recovery on ‘Today’ show

By Nicole Yang

2 minutes to read

Gordon Hayward opened up about his gruesome ankle injury, and its aftermath, in an interview with Matt Lauer of NBC’s “Today” show on Wednesday morning. The Celtics forward — who published a first-hand blog post the evening prior — talked to Lauer about the night of the injury and how he’s been trying to move past the devastating setback.

“I feel better today than I did yesterday,” he said. “That’s kind of like my mindset right now. Just trying to work through each day. Trying to set little, mini-goals. Trying to get on with it.”

While he’s making progress physically — he just traded his hard cast for a walking boot — the emotional damage still lingers. As he was being carted off the court on a stretcher, he remembers being hit with a wave of uncertainty: “Am I done? Is this my career? Is this over?”

Advertisement:

“It’s hard on me,” Hayward told Lauer. “I love to play the game of basketball, so to sit there and not be able to play, it gets kind of frustrating.”

He also noted that there’s a bit of “mental trauma” associated with the incident, given the horrific sight and pain from opening night.

“I remember looking at it, and it just doesn’t look normal, it didn’t look right at all,” he said. “That’ll definitely be with me forever to look down and see my foot the wrong way. That’s something that I try not to think about.”

But what still brings tears to Hayward’s eyes is the image of his mom crying in the crowd at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.

Advertisement:

“As a parent, you don’t want your child to go through that. And as a parent myself, it’s like thinking I would rather take their pain,” he said, fighting back the tears. “This is where it makes me emotional because I wouldn’t want Bernie and Charlie to go through that, so I remember seeing my mom and she’s crying. Like that’s just tough. It’s tough to see your parents cry, too. It makes you emotional.”

Hayward’s overall spirits appeared to high, however, which is consistent with Celtics coach Brad Stevens’ assessment earlier in the week. And the All-Star even threw in a joke that he still sometimes double-checks his foot that it’s facing the right way. The 27-year-old also credited his two young daughters with helping keep things in perspective.

“They don’t know what’s going on,” he explained. “They just know that Daddy has a boo-boo. And so they like to decorate it with stickers, they like to give it a hug and kiss because that’s what we do when they get boo-boos. It’s a little comic relief with them for sure.”

As for what’s next, Stevens had said that Hayward has already begun shooting out of a chair and assisting the Celtics coaching staff. While it’s going to be a while before he can put weight on his foot, Hayward is confident that in spite of the “long and difficult process,” he will “come back better than ever.”

Advertisement:

“God doesn’t give you a challenge you can’t handle.”