What the hell is going on right now?
Earlier this afternoon, it seemed like Gordon Hayward’s signing with the Boston Celtics was practically a lock. ESPN’s Chris Haynes reported that “league sources” had informed him that Hayward to the Celtics was all but done, other reports came in echoing Haynes reporting, and it appeared that the Celtics and GM Danny Ainge especially had narrowly averted disaster by signing at least one of the big names available on this summer’s market.
Then, in a delicious bit of ESPN-on-ESPN reporting violence, new ESPNer Adrian Wojnarowski came in and reported that the Jazz had yet to hear from Hayward one way or the other about his decision. Not only that, Woj soon after tweeted that Hayward’s own agent told him Hayward had not yet made a decision on where he will play next year. The Jazz’s team president also chimed in:
In less than an hour, Hayward’s move to Boston was went from being reportedly done, to being probably done but maybe held up for a short while to give Hayward time to inform the Jazz of his decision, to maybe not being done at all and possibly won’t be decided any time soon:
The most logical scenario here is that Hayward made clear to someone with the Celtics that he had chosen Boston but didn’t say it quite that explicitly. After that conversation, that Celtics person probably let the rest of the team know Hayward’s signature was in the bag, and someone then relayed that feeling to Haynes, which he reported.
However, with news of his decision getting out before he had time to notify the Jazz first—an unnecessary nicety that doesn’t actually matter much but probably means something to Hayward—the player and his agent tried to backtrack some, claiming not erroneously that they technically hadn’t made a final decision yet. With all this devolving into a shitshow in the interim, maybe Hayward wants time to sort things out before doing what was originally reported and signing with the Celtics.
On the other hand, maybe this isn’t so logical after all. If the above hypothesis is correct, couldn’t that have already been solved with a five-minute call to the Jazz’s owner? Why, if his decision really has already been made, does he need to “regroup” so much that he can’t let everyone know today? And what about stuff like this?
The most fitting end to this wild ordeal would be if Hayward winds up signing with the Mavericks or something.