Check out the best moments from Gordon Hayward's NBA career.
During his 14-year NBA career with the Utah Jazz, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets and Oklahoma City Thunder, Gordon Hayward averaged over 15 points per game and connected on 37% of his shots from 3-point range.
So it shouldn’t come as a shock that the retired sharpshooter is now giving back to the game by teaching the art of shooting. Hayward is the co-founder of FORM, a teaching tool that helps players learn proper shooting technique.
“The biggest thing I’ve been working on lately is FORM,” said Hayward, who retired in 2024. “It’s starting to pick up a lot of steam on social media and stuff. I really believe it’s a great tool to help kids learn the foundation of shooting, proper shooting fundamentals. Stuff like keeping your elbow aligned, your hand underneath and in the center of the ball. It’s basketball season now, so it’s really taking off.”
What else has Hayward, who had a prolific college career at Butler before being drafted ninth in 2010 by the Utah Jazz, been up to?
Editor’s Note: The following conversation has been condensed and edited.
NBA.com: How were your holidays?
Gordon Hayward: We’ve got five kids all under the age of 10. The goal is always for everyone to be happy with their presents. No crying on Christmas.
That’s funny. Did you watch the NBA Cup Championship?
I did not get the chance to. I saw the box score. I know New York won. I saw Victor Wembanyama came off the bench, but he played. The Knicks did a good job. They were physical with him.
I like the NBA Cup.
It’s actually pretty cool. I think my last season in the NBA was the first or second year of it and there was some hesitance from the players to embrace it.
But, you know, I think that it’s a pretty cool concept. The chance to go to Vegas in the middle of the season and compete to win a trophy is a cool thing. I love that. It doesn’t really change your schedule a whole lot, either. So it’s not like you’re being asked to travel all over the place and do different events throughout the season. It’s kind of just a part of the regular season. I actually think it’s good.
Plus, that’s a lot of money for the winning team.
That helps, too. No doubt.
How closely do you pay attention to the NBA right now, now that you’re retired?
So I’ve been pretty regular on just keeping up on some of the news that’s going on. I can’t say that I’ve sat down and watched a bunch of games. I check box scores. I look at highlights, different things like that. As I mentioned to you, we have a lot going on with five kids, and I’m in the middle of coaching my fifth-grade daughter’s team. But yeah, I keep up with what’s going on.
All right, so what are your thoughts? Who’s the best team in the West?
The Thunder are the best team in the league by a mile, right? They blow teams out … other than the Spurs. Everyone’s trying to figure out what they can do to stop them. [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] has figured out the league right now and figured out the rules, and he seems almost unstoppable. It seems similar to the season that James Harden had when he was with the Rockets. I don’t know if you remember, the Jazz played him in the playoffs, and they were guarding him from behind to try to, like, figure out what to do. Because it was like, with the way they were calling fouls and how he was getting to the free-throw line and stuff, he was basically unguardable. And the whole league was like, ‘How do we guard this guy? How do we defend?’ And I think it’s something similar with SGA, where it’s like, he’s putting up these numbers every single night. He’s efficient, too.
SGA makes the game look so easy.
He doesn’t even play in the fourth quarter a lot of times because they are blowing the other team out. He’s scoring like 32 points in 30 minutes, you know. I remember when the Warriors had that 73 and 9 team, it was like Steph [Curry] was doing similar things, where it’s like they’re blowing teams out, and Steph is still averaging almost 30 or whatever. It was kind of crazy.
Do you have SGA as your MVP? I mean, personally, I still like Joker, but …
I think that [Nikola] Jokić is the best player in the world. I think everything that he brings to the table is a little more than Shai. I think Shai is the best scorer in the game.
I have a daughter who plays basketball and I spend a lot of time working on her shot. Do you think you should drop the ball before you shoot it? A lot of coaches believe in catching it and shooting it from your chest to get it off faster.
Steph drops the ball, you know, and he gets it off from anywhere. I’m trying to figure that out, because one of the things that makes Joker unguardable is how he shoots it from behind his head. He’s incredible.
Thoughts on the East?
I think the East is like, so wide open. It seems like that could change week to week. I think, you know, New York winning the Cup is, in my eyes, a little bit of foreshadowing. I think that they’re a team that’s built for the playoffs. They’ve got big wings who can defend multiple positions, they’re older, and they have guys that you can give the ball to and they can get a bucket.
My surprise team in the East is the Pistons. And I think you got to give Cade [Cunningham] a lot of credit for what he’s doing with them. And the Duncan Robinson pickup was huge. He gives them some shooting and some room for Cade to operate. They’re another team that’s super dangerous as well in the East.
