The 9 most disappointing Celtics players since 2008
By Oliver Fox
1. Gordon Hayward
Era: Kyrie Pipe Dream
Disappointment Points: 1,000,000
Nothing can replicate the feelings I experienced when Gordon Hayward broke his leg five minutes into his first game with the Celtics, especially since I wasn’t even watching. Here’s how it went down.
I sang in a choir in high school, and we had evening rehearsals once a week. I was walking up the stairs at my high school when—midway through the second and third floors—I got a series of texts from my friends:
“I’m going to be sick.”
“No no no no no no”
“This can’t be happening”
I frantically checked my phone and opened Twitter, only to see a seventeen-second video pop up. It was gruesome, and I had to take a second before continuing up the stairs.
The context of this moment is arguably even more important than the result, as Hayward felt like the first big-time free agent the Celtics had signed in forever. Boston isn’t usually a destination city for stars, so the fact that an All-Star forward to complement Kyrie and mentor the young J’s decided Boston was the place to go was like Christmas.
And then Christmas was canceled, because five minutes into the NBA season I already wanted a mulligan. I didn’t even have to wait until the playoffs for it all to go wrong. It just happened immediately!
Hayward breaks the disappointment scale. Not only was he never the same after his injury, we never even got to see what he would have been had it never happened. The promise of a great offseason turned to ruin in an instant. I can’t even quantify how crushing it was.
Final Tally:
The Lame Duck Administration (2009-2012): 9.5
The “Rebuild” (2013-2015): 2
The Isaiah Thomas Renaissance (2015-2017): 1
The Kyrie Irving Pipe Dream (2017-2019): 1,000,008.5
The Kemba Core (2019-2021): 7
The J’s Take the Reins (2021-present): 0