Loyalty in the NBA: Gordon Hayward Edition

Boos were reigning down from the seats in Madison Square Garden on the night of June 24, 2010. Normally it isn’t out of the ordinary to hear boos throughout the night of the NBA Draft however the boos heard following the Utah Jazz’s selection seemed to be out of place. After all Jazz fans are easily excited by any player the team gets in the NBA Draft. These are the same fans that even today, 3 years following the selection of Dante Exum are treating the third string guard like a perennial All Star. Trey Burke was harrowed as the next superstar point guard before showing that he could barely make a roster and you would have thought Alec Burks was Lebron James by the way Jazz fans would erupt every time he would dunk in a game. Even Enes Kanter was celebrated as a star until he was traded and he suddenly became a D-League caliber player in the eyes of Jazz fans when he no longer donned the Blue, Green and Gold. So to hear Jazz fans boo Utah’s 10th overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft seemed out of the ordinary. And the center of all the attention? A scrawny white kid from Indiana named Gordon Hayward.

Hayward’s first couple of seasons in Utah were anything but easy. First it was the Utah media that questioned if he even belonged in the league. Hayward had only recently become relevant after his college team, Butler, had made it all the way to the National Championship and nearly defeated a college basketball powerhouse in Duke. Hayward was the star player on a small name school from Indiana and the former tennis stand out suddenly found himself in the spotlight on the stage at Madison Square Garden. So the Utah media was justified when they questioned how well Hayward would perform in the world’s toughest basketball league. Was the NCAA Tournament enough to prove that he could hang in there with the likes of Lebron James and Kobe Bryant? Utah fans didn’t think so. After all the Golden State Warriors had just picked up a guy named Stephen Curry from a small name school who just so happened to catch fire in the NCAA Tournament and how well did that turn out?

What was not justified was when Utah Jazz star Deron Williams threw a ball at Hayward during a game against the Phoenix Suns. Despite being yelled at and thrown at by the face of the Utah Jazz organization, Hayward remained calm and finished the play by driving to the basket for an easy lay up. That was Gordon’s second game in the NBA. Williams soon found himself on his way out of Utah along with legendary coach Jerry Sloan. Hayward was suddenly left on a team with no stars and a brand new coach.

With no one else left, Jazz fans reluctantly began to accept Hayward as the new face of the franchise. As the seasons went by the Jazz slowly made small steps in the right direction. They hired Quinn Snyder as their new head coach, they drafted a defensive player of the year candidate in Rudy Gobert and they collected a plethora of point guards so the odds of at least one of them being ‘good enough’ was higher than it had been in recent years. But it wasn’t all sunshine and lemonade for Hayward. The Jazz were struggling year after year until they final made the playoffs in the 2016-17 season. The Jazz let Jeremy Evans leave who was one of Hayward’s closest friends. Hayward eventually signed a Max contact with Charlotte as a restricted free agent before the offer was matched by Utah and Hayward had to hear all about what a huge mistake Utah was making.

It’s amazing how quickly NBA Fans can forget about something that happened in the past. Cleveland fans burned Lebron Jerseys in the streets and rioted at his home in Akron when he decided to take his talents to South Beach yet Four years later they welcomed him back with open arms and showered him in praise when he returned Cleveland to relevance. And as soon as Hayward begins to perform well for Utah the fans forget about how they booed him when he was selected by the Jazz, they forget about how they criticized him for months and years following the draft. They forget about how the media ripped the Jazz for “paying for a Ferrari but getting a Buick” when they decided to match the Hornets offer to Hayward. Basketball fans can be ready to run you of of town but as soon as you start playing well they’re ready to build you a statue.

Loyalty is an interesting subject in sports but in basketball it seems to come under more attention than in any other sport. Brett Farve can go from playing for the Packers to the Vikings and no one discusses it. Jacoby Ellsbury can go from the Red Sox to Yankees and all it gets is a small alert at the bottom of SportsCenter. But if Kevin Durant leaves Olahoma City then suddenly America is on the verge of the second Civil War.

The truth is that players are expected to show unwavering loyalty to their teams. If they dare to leave then the fans will riot in the town square, they’ll vandalize your home and they’ll burn everything they can get their hands on that represents you in any way. But that’s only if you're any good. If you're an average player and you decide to change teams then no one bats an eye. But if you are a ‘star’ player than you're expected to stay with your team, no matter how bad that team or situation may be. But loyalty is only expected on the part of the players. Fans, Team management and ownership are under no obligation to show any sort of loyalty to their players no matter how much that player has done for their organization. Just look at Minnesota in 2007.

Despite how much Kevin Garnett did for the city and for the Franchise the Timberwolves traded Garnett to the Boston Celtics. Then when Garnett had outlived in usefulness in Boston he was shipped off to Brooklyn along with Paul Pierce who had been the face of the Celtics for years. James Harden was a key contributor to the Oklahoma City Thunder and was a large reason for the team making it all the way to the NBA Finals but when the Thunder Owner wanted to save money Harden found himself on a flight to Houston. No one has ever meant quite as much to the Miami Heat organization as Dywane Wade yet when it was time for him to sign a contract extension with Miami the team decided he was ‘too old’ and so they refused to pay him the amount of money he wanted. And when Kristaps Prorzingis was drafted the New York Knicks fans booed him harder than Knicks fans had ever booed anyone. But now that Prozingis is playing well Knicks fans talk about him as if he’s the savior of New York basketball. So where’s the loyalty on the part of these Fans and Teams? The answer is simple, there is none.

When Gordon Hayward announced on July 4th that he would be leaving Utah to join the Boston Celtics Jazz fans were saltier than the lake just a few miles north-west of Vivint Smart Home Arena. On July 2nd Utah fans were ready to build a statue for Hayward, which is ridiculous quite frankly, but as soon as news broke that Hayward was heading to Boston the insults came flying on social media and on the news. Hayward was being called a Super Star, Savior, Face of the Franchise and Legend by Jazz fans. Twenty Four hours later? Those same fans were calling him a traitor, a coward, a wuss and a B-tch. The reason? For making a decision he thought would be best for himself and for his family.

Jazz fans demanded Hayward be loyal to them and to the team. Never mind the fact that the same fans were booing him as a 20 year old kid who suddenly found himself in the national spotlight. Never mind the fact that Deron Williams threw a ball at Hayward in his second career game. Never mind the fact that he watched as the Jazz let his teammates and friends leave because they weren’t useful to the team anymore. Never mind that Hayward listened to the Salt Lake media rip the Jazz for resigning him.

Sorry Utah fans, this may be hard to hear but Gordon Hayward doesn’t owe anything to you. He is allowed to make his own decisions for himself, his wife and his kids. He’s under no obligation to be loyal to you or to the Jazz organization. After all, boos are louder than billboards.