Why Is There So Much Hatred for Gordon Hayward?

Gordon Hayward recently signed a max offer sheet with the Hornets. There has been a lot of animosity towards Hayward by Jazz fans this offseason, but why is there so much hatred for Gordon Hayward? Wouldn’t any of us take do the same thing if we were in a similar situation?

Just put yourself in his position of the past year. You are a member of an organization. You are relatively new to that organization and because you are new you had no say in how much you made during your first four years. When looking at your salary compared to others in the organization you are underpaid. People are being signed for more money than you each year and they are lower performers. You recognize that with your youth and versatility in being able to do multiple jobs well that you deserve more than what you have received.

Now the time comes when you can begin to negotiate for a new contract. In the negotiations you have a few choices. You can sign for less than what you think you should receive, or you can take a chance on yourself and possibly receive a higher contract at the end of the year. However, if you take that risk and don’t perform or something happens so that you are unable to work, you risk having to sign a lower contract.

You decide to take a risk on yourself. During the year some aspects of your performance suffer as you become, for the first time, the go to person for your “office.” However, because you are now the top dog other areas of your performance improve. The year ends and the time to sign a new contract begins. Because you did not sign the contract with your current “office” you have the opportunity to explore the other “offices” around the organization. You can sign a contract with other offices, but your original office has the chance to match that contract, thus keeping you where you’ve been all along.

Now an office comes to you and says they will offer you the maximum amount of money you can take. What are you supposed to do? You take the money every time. You took the risk on yourself and it paid off. You are not going to take the risk and then come back and say “oh no, I couldn’t possibly take that much money. I need to sign for much less to help out my office that could have signed me for less last year, but decided not to.” NO! that would be ludicrous to not sign the offer sheet.

For some reason though if we do it then it is ok, but as soon as someone from a sports team we are a fan of we are in an uproar. Is Gordon Hayward worth a max contract? No, he is not, but it is not his fault someone offered him a max deal. I just do not understand what Jazz fans expected of him. Is it because he is an NBA player and he would have been making millions of dollars each year regardless? Maybe, but the industry standards for the NBA are different than the standards for the rest of the world. NBA players are paid a lot of money, you can’t then expect him to sign for less because he has the skills to be in a high paying profession. If you were in the position to take a big pay raise, or a bigger pay raise, you would choose the bigger pay raise every time. Why then is there so much hatred for Gordon Hayward when he just did the same thing you would have done?