When the Charlotte Hornets gave Gordon Hayward a four-year, $120 million deal in mid-November, you could almost hear the collective gasp coming from all corners of the media realm — social, mainstream and otherwise.
Had Hornets owner Michael Jordan lost his mind?
Did general manager Mitch Kupchak forget that the 30-year-old Hayward had missed so much time with injuries these past few seasons in Boston while struggling to return to the All-Star level he’d reached during his Utah days?
The reaction was so intense and widespread that we even decided to hold an emergency roundtable with our national NBA coverage crew at The Athletic to discuss the controversial contract at the time. As I pointed out then, it’s not as if Charlotte was the only team known to be willing to pay him $100-plus million to come to town. Atlanta, among others, was in that financial neighborhood too.
What’s more, that Hayward had turned down a $34.1 million…
