Larry Brown Sports

Delonte West got a little too friendly during the Mavericks triple-overtime loss to the Jazz on Monday night, and it earned him a technical foul. While playing three overtimes can be exhausting and frustrating, West’s unsportsmanlike moment came in the second quarter. As you can see from the video above, Delonte was unhappy with Gordon Hayward after the two got tangled up, so he decided to shove his finger in Hayward’s ear. Why this was his reaction to being upset, we have no idea.

If there is any positive to be taken from the situation for Hayward, it’s that it was West’s index finger and not his once-mangled ring finger that he fractured a couple months back. If Hayward saw the picture West tweeted of his injury and it turned out to be the same finger that was in his ear, he would probably have nightmares for weeks.

And the list of things NBA players do to keep themselves busy during the lockout continues to grow weirder.  If I told you that an NBA player was joining a video game league during the lockout, you might find that a bit strange.  When I then informed you that the player is Gordon Hayward, it would probably make more sense.

One guy will be doing movies.  Another guy will be joining a fraternity.  A third guy has been playing beach volleyball.  But Gordo? He’ll be gaming in a StarCraft II tournament in Atlantic City from Oct. 6-9.  The league, which is sponsored by IGN Entertainment, offers a $100,000 purse that 256 players will compete for a share of.

“I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember,” Hayward said according to the Deseret News. “I’m a competitive guy, and I love the competitive nature of video games. Pro-gamers are really sports stars themselves. The mental strategy that goes into planning your next move and what your opponent is going to do are skills you need to be successful playing basketball — and playing StarCraft II. If you want to be good, you have to put a lot of time and effort into it, just like with other sports. I’ve got the best of both worlds.”

Something tells me about 98% of the NBA would disagree that pro gamers are sports stars, but if it helps Hayward justify his obsession then who are we to intervene?  If nothing else, Gordo gets to take a break from teammates yelling at him while he tries to conquer his StarCraft opponents.

Larry Brown Sports got the chance to visit with Utah Jazz rookie forward Gordon Hayward on Tuesday. Last year Hayward led five-seed Butler to the NCAA Tournament Championship Game against Duke as a sophomore. Hayward, who says he eats Subway on gamedays, is offering to buy 5,555 meatball pepperoni subs for Subway customers if a five-seed can win it all this March Madness. The odds are against the fives, but we visited with Hayward to hear his thoughts on who could get it done, how his rookie season is going, the changes with the Jazz, and whether he’s cooperating with the rookie hazing. We really started getting warmed up towards the end of the interview so make sure you read the whole way through.

LBS: I know you’re repping the five seeds for Subway, which one do you think has the best chance to advance?

GH: I played Kansas State last year and they’re very long and athletic, and they have a great guard in Jacob Pullen who can lead them down the stretch. That’s the five I think that has the best chance.

LBS: You were really able to build your draft stock in the tournament. Take me back to last year when you were thinking about entering the draft. How tough of a decision was that for you?

GH: It was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make. Coming from a program like Butler where they do things the right way, there’s great people there, it’s 20 minutes from my house and I had my friends and family there, so it was a very difficult decision.

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The Jazz is 0-2 after getting blown out in back-to-back nights to start the season. They’ve given up 110 points in both games, falling to Denver on Wednesday night and Phoenix on Thursday. During the 4th quarter of Utah’s game with Phoenix Thursday night, point guard Deron Williams got on rookie first-round pick Gordon Hayward for not being in the right place and doing the right thing within the offense. Here’s the video via Hoops Notes:

If you were expecting something big, you were let down because that was pretty mild but it shows the kind of demands Deron has for his teammates. After the game, D-Will said “We don’t know the offense.” He also said his outburst at Hayward was “communication.” Sucks for Williams who has been used to going to the playoffs and winning every year he’s been in the league except his rookie season. What does he expect with half the Jazz now playing with the Bulls?

The NBA Draft was pretty boring as a whole and about the only upside is at least we didn’t have cameras on the players showing they were selected prior to the announcement at the podium. If there was one notable aspect of the draft, aside from David Stern laughing at the Bulls pick, it was Gordon Hayward bringing his girlfriend along to NYC. Hayward is 20 years old and he just completed his sophomore season at Butler. He’s a young looking guy which means his young looking girlfriend suits him well. Oddly though, she just graduated from high school according to her facebook page. The two went to high school together so it makes the situation whole lot less creepy but it’s still somewhat uncomfortable. It definitely reminds us how young most of these players are. Anyway, here are some pictures of Gordon Hayward’s girlfriend, Kolbi Killingback:

Sources:
The Big Lead