‘Things can change fast’: Charlotte Hornets’ Gordon Hayward talks recovery, playoff push
.JPG "Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward said “we’ve got a bunch of fighters on this team,” and has been inspired by his teammates pulling through while he has been out injured.")
Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward doesn’t know when — or even if — his right foot will recover in time for him to play again this season.
“I’m optimistic and hopeful that I will,” Hayward said in an exclusive interview Thursday with The Observer. “But it’s hard to put a timeline on this type of injury.
“Things can change fast. I’m working every day to try to get back as fast as I can. But I can’t make any promises one way or the other.”
Hayward, the Hornets’ $120 million free agent from last offseason, has been out since April 2 with a right foot sprain suffered against the Indiana Pacers. Just recently he was cleared to stop wearing a protective walking boot.
He’s now allowed to do some weight-bearing exercises, but the rehab process is slow: Some stationary work to start exercising and flexing the muscles in his foot and cautiously getting up on his toes.
Hayward said if he continues to feel no new pain, the rehab pace could pick up rapidly. He’d missed 17 consecutive games heading into Thursday’s home matchup with the Chicago Bulls.
At 32-33, the Hornets are looking to at least qualifying for the play-in tournament that will decide the last two playoff spots in the NBA’s Eastern and Western conferences. The Hornets are eighth in the East, and would likely have to win one or two games in the play-in to qualify for the 16-team playoff draw.
Hayward, 31 and in his 11th NBA season, is one of the few Hornets with extensive playoff experience. The starting small forward, he averages 19.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.1 assists. He’s matching his NBA best 3-point shooting season at 41.5%.
His health was always going to be the variable in evaluating this signing: He had a gruesome leg injury in his first season with the Boston Celtics that cost him all but a game of the 2017-18 seasons. This season, he has had a broken finger, a hip strain and lower back discomfort, in addition to the foot sprain.
He’s part of a cascade of major Hornets injuries since mid-March, starting with rookie star LaMelo Ball’s wrist fracture. Since then, rotation players Hayward, Malik Monk, P.J. Washington, Devonte Graham and Cody Martin have all missed games.
Most recently, Miles Bridges was ruled out under health-and-safety protocols, the NBA’s term for a COVID-19 issue.
Hayward said it’s hard to project how long a soft-tissue injury such as his will take to heal. So much of his recovery timeline now is based in whether he starts feeling pain again.
“Being able to go up on my toes a little bit here and there. With each day, I think it will improve,” Hayward said. “These things can improve pretty drastically as long as there is no pain.”
Finally freed from the walking boot
Hayward spent about a month in that walking boot, which was mandatory until his foot stopped hurting.
It was as annoying to his wife as it was to him.
“Getting the boot off was huge for me mentally and physically. Just to be able to walk around pain-free is a big step,” Hayward said.
“Certainly my wife is happy about it because there is not one shoe (in a pair) lying around the house everywhere. I had a bunch of (right) shoes just sitting around the house that she was pretty frustrated about.”
Hayward knew he’d hurt himself that first half in Indianapolis, but the severity wasn’t immediately apparent.
He went up for a shot that Pacers center Myles Turner attempted to block. Hayward tried to hang in the air as long as he could, to avoid a traveling violation, and thus landed awkwardly late in the second quarter.
“The last play before halftime I had the ball at the top of the key and tried to make a move, and I couldn’t go anywhere. I shoveled it to Miles and he hit a 3,” Hayward recalled.
“I immediately looked at the training staff and said something is definitely wrong because I couldn’t push off my right foot.”
The diagnosis the next day: A foot sprain and at least a month before he’d be re-evaluated.
“It was sharp pain, and that’s not something you try to play through,” Hayward said. “That’s why I was in the boot so long.”
‘We’ve got a bunch of fighters’
Hayward said it’s inspiring watching how young teammates Jalen McDaniels and Caleb Martin have responded, going from hardly playing at all to starting roles as the injuries mount.
“We’ve got a bunch of fighters on this team,” Hayward said.
He also knows these are the biggest games of the season, and it’s exasperating not to be able to play.
“It’s frustrating as a player — if it’s something you can play through, then you figure a way to get out there,” Hayward said. “That’s not what this is.”
This story was originally published May 6, 2021 at 4:40 PM with the headline "‘Things can change fast’: Charlotte Hornets’ Gordon Hayward talks recovery, playoff push."
