(LifeSiteNews) — Former NBA All-Star Gordon Hayward shared his story of why he converted to the Catholic faith shortly after ending his 14-year professional basketball career.
In a recent interview with Catholic YouTuber Timothy Gordon, the NBA veteran told the story of how he decided to convert to the Catholic faith in 2024.
READ: NBA veteran Gordon Hayward converts to Catholicism shortly after retiring from 14-year career
Hayward had been attending Catholic Mass for 10 years because his wife was a practicing Catholic; however, he said he never received the Eucharist since he was Lutheran.
He recalled that Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who coached Hayward from 2020 to 2024 as a member of the Celtics, had a significant impact on him. The former basketball pro said Mazzulla, who is a devout Catholic, recommended a book called The Eucharist is really Jesus. How Christ’s Body and Blood Are the Key to Everything We Believe by Catholic Answers apologist Joe Heschmeyer.
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After reading the book, Hayward began to realize that Jesus Christ is really present in the Eucharist and that It is not just a symbol.
Even though “communion” was important to him growing up as a Lutheran, he realized that he was “missing out” and was “not really fully partaking in what I should be.”
“It gave me just like big FOMO (fear of missing out), I guess,” he said, smiling.
“After reading that, I was like ‘Alright, I’m in, I’m fully in.’”
He noted that when he heard early Christians were framed as “cannibals,” he realized that the teaching about the Eucharist was present in the early Church.
Hayward said that, to him, the hardest things to accept regarding the Catholic faith were its teachings on the Blessed Virgin Mary and the pope.
He said it was difficult for him to accept that Mary was “perfect,” i.e., without sin. However, it made sense to him when he realized that Christ, who he knew was perfect, had to come into this world in human form through someone who is also a perfect vessel.
Regarding the popes, the former NBA star said that he struggled initially because there were bad popes in the past, and he asked himself why God would let that happen. However, since the teachings of the Church remained the same for so long, he understood that God had not left His Church.
“There are things that have gone down in the Church that were probably pretty evil, but the teachings have remained the same,” Hayward noted. “There has been essentially the same teaching for thousands of years, and there’s nothing else that’s like that.”
He also mentioned that he prays the Rosary regularly and that his wife is currently pregnant with their fifth child.
Hayward started his NBA career with the Utah Jazz and later played for the Boston Celtics, the Charlotte Hornets, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. He made the NBA All-Star team in 2017. After his breakout season in 2017, Hayward joined the Boston Celtics, but suffered a gruesome injury in the first game of the season, sidelining him for a year. He said it took him two and a half years to regain his explosiveness on the court and that it was a very difficult and humbling time for him. He saw a Catholic therapist at the time who told him to put his trust in the Lord, Hayward recalled.
The NBA all-star retired in August 2024 and was received into the Catholic Church on October 1 that year by Archbishop Timothy Broglio at the Basilica of Saint Sebastian Outside the Walls in Rome. In 2025, Hayward returned to Rome and met Pope Leo XIV personally during the Vatican’s Jubilee of Sports.
