Gordon Hayward Summary

Hayward, the newest first round pick of the Utah Jazz was once inches away from giving up basketball altogether.

"The funny thing is after his freshman year of high school, Hayward nearly gave up basketball.

His parents say he prepared a speech to tell his coach he would stop playing to focus on tennis. He stood 5-11 then and figured he would be too short to play basketball in college.

His mom, Jody, says she told him to give basketball more time. He shot up to 6-8 by his senior year, a surprise because both parents are 5-10. And he capped Brownsburg High's season with a buzzer-beating layup for a

Marlen Garcia of USA Today tells the story: state championship in Class 4A."

As a result of the growth spurt, Hayward has the skills of a ball handler in a big mans body. They showed a highlight real of various Gordon Hayward moves from his time at Butler and they showed one step back cross-over three that I had to rewind three times in order to wrap my head around it.

For those of you who may be afraid that the Jazz drafted an un-athletic stiff you may be interested to know that in the pre-draft combine Hayward showed off his leaping ability with a 30.5-inch no-step vertical jump, which bested the likes of Evan Turner and John Wall.

Although he had always been a good athlete with nice skills, it was hard to predict Hayward's rise to prominence. Mark Titus, sat down with Thayer Evans of the New York Times to talk about Hayward.

"Titus, a senior guard at Ohio State who played with Hayward at Brownsburg High, recalled being shocked when friends started to call him with tales of his former teammate dunking on opponents. Until then, he had remembered Hayward as a spot-up shooter who was too diminutive to drive to the basket.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Titus said in a telephone interview. “I still don’t believe it. Even when I watch him now, it’s just like, that can’t be the same kid out there.”

It is the same kid and here is some more video evidence.

He is a real life Jimmy Chitwood (if you do not know who Jimmy Chitwood is then watch this). And if you cant appreciate real life Jimmy then we need to have a talk.

He lost in the NCAA championship game after leading his team to the impossible. Reminds me of another guy that the Jazz took in the top ten in the Draft...Deron Williams.