Gordon Hayward and his family emerged from the plane in the terminal in Boston. Fresh off a visit with the Miami Heat where he received a police escort swooping him off the runway to the hotel where meetings awaited him, he saw Brad Stevens waiting like a chauffeur.
Stevens went to pick up Hayward with assistant coach Micah Shrewsberry. That was the first time Hayward described Boston as “different,” setting the stage for a “gut feeling” that would sway him away from returning to the Jazz and toward the Celtics.