BOSTON — The Celtics were in sunny Los Angeles, it was another sub-zero winter day back in Boston, and Gordon Hayward was stuck in rehab, shooting baskets from a chair and picking up marbles with his toes to work his surgically repaired ankle back into shape.
“The hardest part of the whole process has been the mental challenge,” Hayward said Thursday, reporting that he is 100 percent healthy and preparing to be on the court for the Oct. 16 opener against the Philadelphia 76ers. “I think you find the fight within yourself.”
The Celtics’ top free-agent acquisition of the 2017 summer, Hayward was injured in the first quarter of the first game of the season when he landed awkwardly on his left leg, breaking his tibia and dislocating his ankle. He may have been able to return before the end of the season, but then he needed more surgery in May.
Other players did their best to keep up his spirits: One time, Aron Baynes brought back some Krispy Kreme doughnuts from a road trip and drove them over to Hayward’s house.
“There’s so many days where I wake up and it’s like, ‘Man, here we go again,’” he said. “It was the most difficult thing I’ve done.”
Speaking at the new practice facility named for Red Auerbach, Hayward said he celebrated each bit of progress — the walking boot coming off, or shooting baskets standing up, instead of sitting in a chair. Within the past two weeks, he has been able to play five-on-five basketball.
“With each step I get some joy,” said Hayward, who then slipped into his Celtics uniform and took part in a photoshoot.
Now, he said, he is ready to get back in the green for real.
“I expect to be out there,” he said. “I would say I’m basically 100 percent. There are certain things that I think are going to take time. Even if I was 100 percent healthy, I’m not 100 percent basketball-wise, just because I haven’t played in a year. I’m trying to figure those things out.”
Despite losing both Hayward and, later, point guard Kyrie Irving, the Celtics earned the No. 2 seed in the East last season and took Cleveland to seven games in the conference finals.
“Watching the guys last year just gave me a lot of confidence in our team and what I think we have the ability to do,” he said. “I’ve been playing with some of them these last two weeks, and we have a lot of talent on this team. … It’s going to be a fun year.”
Boston Celtics guard Jabari Bird said he’s taking a break from the team following charges that he choked and kicked his girlfriend and prevented her from leaving his apartment.
In a statement Thursday, the 24-year-old Bird apologized to his teammates and fans for creating an “unnecessary distraction” and said he’s taking time away to deal with “legal and medical issues.”
“I do not condone violence against women,” he said. “I am hopeful that in due time and process, I will be able to regain everyone’s trust.”
A management agency that represents Bird released the statement just hours after an arraignment hearing in which Bird was held on $50,000 bail. Not-guilty pleas to domestic violence-related charges were entered on his behalf.
Police spoke with Bird’s girlfriend, a student at a local college, at a city hospital after his arrest , prosecutor Khyati Short said during the hearing.
Bird choked the woman unconscious, threw her against the wall and dragged her by the ankles when she tried to leave his apartment in the Brighton neighborhood, police said.
The ordeal, sparked by what the woman called “trust issues,” went on for several hours, she said, until Bird experienced “seizure-like” symptoms and fell. That’s when the woman left.
Bird spent several days in a hospital. The woman was in the hospital briefly and was released without serious injury, according to a spokesman for prosecutors. Her name has not been released.
Bird’s lawyer, former federal prosecutor Brian Kelly, said that his client “understands the seriousness of the allegations” but that there are two sides to the story.
The Celtics called the allegations disturbing and said the team’s “thoughts are with the victim.”
“The Celtics organization deplores domestic violence of any kind, and we are deeply disturbed by the allegations against Jabari Bird,” the team said in a statement.
The team notes that domestic violence issues are handled by the NBA’s main office.
Bird, a second-round draft choice of the Celtics in 2017 out of California, signed a two-year contract with the team this summer after splitting his rookie season between Boston and the Maine Red Claws of the G-League. He appeared in 13 regular-season games for the Celtics last season, averaging 3 points per game.