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Each NBA team’s most devastating injury in franchise history

By Christopher Jeter

Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls. (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images)
Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls. (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Gordon Hayward, Boston Celtics
Gordon Hayward, Boston Celtics. (Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images) /

Most devastating injury in Boston Celtics history: Gordon Hayward

When Gordon Hayward signed a four-year, $128 million contract with the Boston Celtics prior to the 2017-18 NBA season, fans had plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

He was reuniting with his old college coach Brad Stevens and he was coming off a great season with the Utah Jazz, where he averaged a career-best 21.9 points per game, while hitting 39.8 percent of his threes. Ostensibly, plugging him into a Celtics team that won 53 games and reached the Eastern Conference Finals the year before should have been seamless.

Then, this happened:

Hayward suffered a fractured tibia and dislocated ankle a mere five minutes into his Celtics career, ultimately missing the rest of the season. In the immediate aftermath, most fans and analysts believed the Celtics would struggle to replace Hayward’s projected production.

The Celtics lost a lot of key rotation players like Avery Bradley via free agency and Jae Crowder in the trade to acquire Kyrie Irving from the Cleveland Cavaliers, who happened to be their opponents on that fateful night. So the team had to bank on lottery picks like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown playing above their heads to make up for the loss of Hayward.

Fortunately for the Celtics, everything worked out better than expected. Irving played like an All-Star before going down with a knee injury of his own prior to the playoffs. Tatum looked like the best rookie of the 2017 draft class.

Most importantly, the Celtics won 55 games and made the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight year. Of course, they lost to LeBron James and the Cavaliers once again, but that they made it that far without Irving and Hayward was astounding.

Hayward has struggled in 2018-19, as he continues to recover from the horrifying injury. While many could argue that the Celtics still would have lost to James and the gang if Hayward were healthy, the injury robbed us of a chance to know with absolute certainty.