The Patriots may have played a small part in Gordon Hayward's decision to sign with Celtics

AP Photo | Gerald Herbert

The NBA world has had a few days to digest Gordon Hayward’s decision to leave the Utah Jazz and join the Boston Celtics. Now that we’ve all accepted it, we can look a bit further into why he chose his new team.

As it turns out, the New England Patriots may have had a bit of an influence on Hayward’s choice.

According to The Players’ Tribune, Hayward said that the winning culture in and around Boston helped sway his decision. Thanks to the major successes of the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics, the 6-foot-8 forward chose Boston as his new home.

“There were so many great things pulling me in that direction,” Hayward said, “There was the winning culture of Boston, as a city – from the Sox, to the Pats, to the Bruins. There was the special history of the Celtics, as a franchise – from Russell, to Bird, to Pierce, and it goes on. There was this amazing potential of the current Celtics roster, as a team – from ownership, to the front office, to a talented roster with Isaiah, and Al and everyone else. And of course, there was Coach Stevens: not just for the relationship that we’ve built off the court, but also for the one that we started building on the court, all of those years ago, in Indiana.”

He’s seen the winning ways of the city from the outside, and now Gordon Hayward is ready to be a part of it all.

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