By Trejan Rowbotham
October 17, 2018
One day before the one year anniversary of his gruesome ankle injury, Gordon Hayward made his return to the Boston Celtics lineup to start the 2018-19 NBA regular season.
Since the matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers that left his ankle dislocated and his tibia broken, Hayward has gone through months of rehab. Immediately following the injury, the Celtics did not give a timetable for Hayward’s return; however, they later stated that they expected to have him playing again before the playoffs in April.
Unfortunately, that never happened for the Celtics. The former All-Star experienced numerous setbacks during his various rehab assignments and was unable to rejoin the Celtics in time for their playoff run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Boston, who was also without All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, lost the Conference Finals in seven games to Cleveland.
As the Celtics’ season came to an end and summer commenced, Hayward progressed much faster. The former Butler University star seemingly pieced everything together on August 28, 2018, when he defeated All-Star guard and workout partner Bradley Beal in five straight one-on-one matches.
During a well-documented phone call to NBA agent Mark Bartelstein, Beal said, “I have good news and bad news: I might suck, but Gordon is 100 percent back.”
Hayward’s comeback concluded on October 16, 2018, when he started and more importantly finished the regular season opener for the Boston Celtics. Hayward played 25 minutes, scored 10 points, collected five rebounds, and swiped four steals in the Boston win.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Infuse Student Media or Southwest Baptist University.
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