“It was so inspirational to see our first American pope…”
—
Gordon Hayward has said it countless times: Having two parents under six feet tall is not the best recipe for success in the NBA.
Although no one else in his family is over six feet, the Indianapolis native reached 6’8. He credits God for his height and talent that enabled him to reach an NCAA Championship Final with Butler University in 2010 and an NBA All-Star selection in 2017.
He had also been invited onto the U.S. Olympic roster in 2016, but declined, in part to stay close to his wife as she was approaching the birth of their second child.
Robyn Hayward, a lifelong Catholic, married her then-Lutheran husband in the Catholic Church in 2014. They had been attending Mass together and raising their children as Catholics, but it was not until last year, after he retired from the NBA, that full communion with the Church came about for the whole family.
On October 1, 2024, Gordon Hayward was received into the Church at the Basilica of Saint Sebastian in Rome.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gordon Hayward (@gordonhayward)
