Utah Jazz notebook: Gordon Hayward earns a stat he's never had before

OAKLAND, Calif. — Gordon Hayward didn't become a bad boy overnight — or at all, really — but the squeaky clean Utah Jazz player earned a little bit of street cred on Wednesday.

The second-year player finally had a technical foul put on his record.

"A lot of people were happy about it," he said, "which is kind of weird."

Another oddity?

The "T" he received for trying to get separation from the Clippers' feisty guard, Mo Williams, on an inbounds play was the first tech Hayward has ever received.

Yes, ever. Counting his NBA career, including his two seasons at Butler and those years at Brownsburg (Ind.) High School, even back to his youth hoops days.

His reaction?

"I don't know," Hayward said. "It's $2,000 wasted."

Kind of an opportunity wasted as well, he joked.

Hayward, you see, didn't even realize he'd been T'd up — and not just because it's never happened to him in his 21-plus years.

When the ref blew the whistle, Hayward assumed he and Williams had simply been called for a double foul — not a costly technical.

He didn't realize that until he got to the bench and Raja Bell — no stranger of technical fouls — told him, "That's two G's."

Hayward was perplexed about Bell's two-grand reference.

"I was like, 'What? What are you talking about it?'" Hayward said. "He's like, 'Yeah, they T'd you up.'"

That still left Hayward feeling perplexed.

"I was just trying to get to my spot," he said. "Things were getting physical out there."

Hayward didn't think his actions merited a technical, but he isn't going to apologize for what he did. It was an intense game, and Williams was in his way of doing what he was supposed to do.

"I think it was good for the team, I guess," Hayward said. "We weren't going to back down. We were showing that we were going to fight them and we were going to be there."

As for why others were tickled about his tech, Hayward laughed when it was suggested that it's because they're not the ones who have to pay the charity-bound fine.

"Exactly," he said.