Gordon Hayward had a chaotic decision process on the Fourth of July in which it was reported he chose the Boston Celtics, but that report surfaced before he had finalized his decision.
"This entire process was gut wrenching for him," said Mark Bartelstein. "Utah has done an incredible job. That was an incredible situation for him."
Hayward met with the Celtics, Utah Jazz and Miami Heat in free agency and after each meeting, he felt as though he would sign with that team.
"There were a lot of looks done before July 1 to narrow it down to Miami, Boston and Utah."
Hayward met first with the Heat and was blown away by their presentation.
"My god, I think this is the spot," said Hayward to Bartelstein following his meeting with the Heat.
"I think this is a wrap. I think this is the place for me," Hayward told Bartelstein after the Boston meeting.
"Utah nailed everything to make Gordon feel like this was the place to stay," said Bartelstein.
Hayward was back to thinking he couldn't leave Utah following their 3.5 hour meeting.
"Hayward was leaning towards staying with Utah on Monday night," said Bartelstein.
On Tuesday morning, Hayward began to lean towards choosing Boston. As that happened, news broke that Hayward had decided to sign with the Celtics.
Bartelstein then called the teams and the media as Hayward had not yet made a final decision. Hayward's decision came several hours later.
"A long time ago we made the decision to go through The Players Tribune," said Bartelstein.
Bartelstein said Hayward had been writing his piece with three different versions over the past week.
