Hayward suddenly announced his retirement on social media, officially ending his 14-year NBA career. Hayward was drafted by the Utah Jazz with the 9th pick in the first round in 2010 and has played for the Jazz, Greens, Hornets, Thunder and other teams in his career. Hayward played in 835 games in his career, averaging 15.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
It is worth mentioning that Hayward was born in 1990 and is only 34 years old, although he has entered the ranks of veterans, but he is not yet of the age of retirement. The reason why Hayward is retiring now is probably because of injuries, and after being traded to the Thunder last season, Hayward basically has no sense of existence.
After Hayward announced his retirement, Paul George was the only rookie in the class of 2010 who was still playing in the NBA, which was also somewhat surprising. After all, the 2010 rookie has only been in the NBA for 14 years, and there are still many players who entered the NBA before them, such as James in the class of 2003.
Of course, James is a special case, and there is no precedent in history. James will soon be 40 years old, already the oldest player in the league last season, and is about to enter the 22nd season of his career, which will tie the all-time record held by Carter, but James is still very strong and can even play a few more seasons.
In addition to James in 2003, Paul in 2005 is still playing, Lowry and Tucker in 2006, Durant, Conley, Horford, Green in 2007, Rose, Westbrook, Love, Gordon in 2008, Curry, Harden, DeRozan and other veterans in 2009 have not yet retired, of course, they have all been in the league for 15 years, and their ages are basically over 35 years old, and they have all entered the ranks of veterans.
Compared with the previous class of 2009 and the subsequent class of 2011, the rookies of the class of 2010 were indeed inferior, but this class still had four All-Star players, namely George, Cousins, Wall, and Hayward, but they all suffered serious injuries without exception, so Wall, Cousins, and Hayward all left the NBA schedule early, and even retired directly.
Although George is still on the roster and has signed a four-year, $221 million max contract with the 76ers, which means that George will play another four seasons, George has also suffered a serious injury with a broken leg before. Fortunately, George recovered well from the injury, so he became the longest career and the most accomplished player in the class of 2010.