Immediately after Gordon Hayward went to the floor with a gruesome ankle injury, TNT cameras showed shots of horrified fans and players reacting to one of the league's biggest stars going down just six minutes into his first game with his new Celtics team.
On Twitter, fans and fellow players offered support and prayers to Hayward. The injury mortified most watching the game and put a damper on excitement surrounding the start of the NBA season.
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Fox Sports 1 personality Skip Bayless, however, was not thinking about how unfortunate or painful the injury was for Hayward. Instead, he tweeted that LeBron James is that much more likely to win the Eastern Conference and lose to the Warriors in the NBA Finals.
If Gordon Hayward is gone, maybe for the season, LeBron's path to losing a sixth finals gets even easier.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) October 18, 2017
That prompted Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan to respond, calling Bayless a "clown."
You’re a clown for that tweet after a man gets hurt with a potential career ending injury! Shit bigger then basketball!
— DeMar DeRozan (@DeMar_DeRozan) October 18, 2017
While DeRozan was caught by Bayless' bait-and-hook hot takes, Bayless' comment was certainly off-color with how the rest of the NBA world was reacting.