Brad Stevens on Gordon Hayward After Surgery: 'His Spirits Were Pretty Positive'

Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said star forward Gordon Hayward emerged from surgery in positive spirits after a procedure on a gruesome ankle fracture-dislocation he suffered Tuesday night in the team's season-opening game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena.

On Friday, Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com passed along comments Stevens made after visiting Hayward in the hospital Thursday.

"[He's] having some of the post-surgery challenges of pain and everything else," he said. "But the surgery went great. His spirits were pretty positive. We talked a little bit about how to approach the next five months with maintaining that positivity—different ways to stay engaged, different ways to approach this, to attack this, and he was ready to get started on his rehab the minute he got out of surgery."

Hayward suffered the injury in the first quarter of his Celtics debut. He signed a four-year, $128 million contract with the organization in July after spending the first seven years of his career with the Utah Jazz.

His agent, Mark Bartelstein, told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski after the surgery the forward is "unlikely" to return during the 2017-18 NBA season.

Stevens said he hasn't considered outside options in order to upgrade the roster after losing one of their key contributors so early in the campaign.

"My sole focus has been on Gordon and trying to make sure that we maximize this group that we have right now," he said.

Meanwhile, Hayward received a massive amount of support via social media after suffering the injury. One notable message came from Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who provided a blueprint on how to make it through the comeback effort in an Instagram post:

The Celtics, who are 0-2 after losses to the Cavs and Milwaukee Bucks, return to action Friday night for a road game against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center.

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