Gordon Hayward signs 4-year, maximum deal with Boston Celtics

BOSTON (AP) — Brad Stevens was just a week or so into his new job as Butler head coach when he met Gordon Hayward – his first recruit to visit.

A decade later, they’ve been reunited with the Boston Celtics.

“It’s really an unbelievable thing to be sitting with a guy in your office when he’s 16 or 17 years old, and to again be sitting with him when he’s 27,” the Celtics coach said on Friday after Hayward signed his four-year, $128 million deal.

Ten days after announcing that he had accepted the Celtics’ offer and agreed to leave Utah, Hayward officially joins a team that earned the No. 1 seed in the East last season and reached the conference finals. Hayward was an All-Star last season for the Jazz and averaged 21.9 points.

The Celtics needed to clear salary cap space to make room for Hayward, which they accomplished by trading guard Avery Bradley to Detroit and then waiving forward Jordan Mickey early Friday.

“It’s been a long 10 days, hasn’t it?” Celtics basketball boss Danny Ainge said.

One of the most coveted free agents of the offseason, the Celtics lured Hayward away from the Jazz with a max contract and the chance to rejoin his college coach. At Butler, Stevens and Hayward went to back-to-back NCAA championship games.

I feel like our team is in a better position than last year.”

Celtics President Danny Ainge

Stevens said his pitch to Hayward was more about the future than the past.

“I talked about why this transition was so great for me and my family, and also how hard it was to initially make the transition,” Stevens said in a conference call with reporters on Friday. “I tried to keep it much more focused on the now than our relationship 10 years ago.”

It’s the second straight summer the Celtics have landed a big free agent: Last year, the team brought in Al Horford – and made a pitch to Kevin Durant, as well.

That helped them reach the Eastern Conference finals, where they were eliminated by Cleveland in five games. The Celtics also had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, which they traded for the third pick – Duke forward Jayson Tatum – and another first-rounder, likely next year.

“I feel like our team is in a better position than last year,” Ainge said.

Landing Hayward was not only a coup for the Celtics, but for the Eastern Conference as a whole. This summer has seen Western Conference teams load up to try to defeat the Warriors, and the vast majority of high-profile roster moves have occurred in the East.

Hayward will wear No. 20, which was last worn by Ray Allen during the New Big Three era that helped the franchise win its unprecedented 17th NBA title.