Gordon Hayward relives gruesome injury: ‘Something very wrong here’

As Gordon Hayward recalls, he ran the play countless times. But within the opening minutes of the 2017 NBA season, his year came to a heartbreaking halt after the Celtics forward fell awkwardly to the court, breaking his ankle gruesomely in the process.

“From what I remember, I’d set up Jae Crowder so I could go back door, and had a step on him when Kyrie [Irving] threw up the pass,” Hayward recounted Wednesday in the blog post, “In An Instant.”

“I went up to try and go get it, and right at that moment, LeBron James came over from the other side. So I had one guy behind me, one guy in front of me, and we all were trying to get the ball up top.”

Though Hayward, 27, had been thrown off balance several times in his career, his leg got caught underneath him on Oct. 17, with thousands inside Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena stunned as the 6-foot-8 forward lay on the ground.

“Immediately, I knew something was off, but when I landed, it wasn’t a huge amount of pain,” Hayward described. “I rolled over and saw my foot, and it was pointed in completely the wrong direction. My first thought was, ‘Oh. This isn’t good. There’s something very wrong here.’ I felt a sense of panic come over me and signaled to the ref, ‘Hey, look at this. You’ve got to stop the game.’ And still, it didn’t seem like it was hurting that much.”

Once Hayward’s brain registered what had happened, the pain began to seep in.

“The training staff came running over to me super fast, but however long it was — three seconds, five seconds — I just remember sitting there, looking at my foot the wrong way, and it felt like an eternity,” Hayward said. “Dr. Rosneck, the Cavaliers doctor, braced me as he explained that they wanted to try and pop my ankle back into place. I held on, and the moment they did it, there was just a massive shot of pain, probably the most pain I’ve ever felt in my life.”

While getting X-rays in one of the training room, Hayward recalled Cavaliers point guard and former Celtic Isaiah Thomas awaiting his arrival.

“The first person who talked to me back there was Isaiah Thomas. He was already back there in a training room. I can’t remember exactly what he said, but I know he said a prayer for me, like right next to me. He was just there for me. I’ve learned in a short time what a special guy Isaiah is,” Hayward said of Thomas, who helped recruit Hayward in free agency before being traded himself in the Irving deal.

Currently recovering, Hayward is grateful to his family, including wife Robyn and their two daughters, as well as the entire NBA community for their unyielding support.

“I keep imagining what it’s going to be like to step onto the floor at the Garden, and make my regular season debut as a Celtic. It’s going to be a little delayed. But with each day of my rehab, I’ll be that much closer to making it happen,” Hayward said. “I’m already dreaming about sharing that moment with everyone here in Boston — a city that I’m still getting to know, but that I’ve connected with through all of this in ways beyond anything I could have imagined.”