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.
Timothy Broglio, the Archbishop of Military Services, confirmed Hayward and gave him his First Holy Communion. The basilica was the ideal site for the event, since Saint Sebastian is a patron of both military personnel and athletes.
“I have servicemembers in my family whom I respect very much for their dedication, courage, and self-sacrifice,” Hayward said, adding that “a small amount of those virtues can be found in athletics, too.”
Hayward loves the freeing feeling after Confession, and he loves how Jesus Christ is present in the Holy Eucharist in a substantial way. This “Real Presence” is covered in a favorite book of Hayward’s called The Eucharist Is Really Jesus, written by Joe Heschmeyer of Catholic Answers.
Hayward has a series of fitting places and events that match his life, and his hometown is no different.
The Eucharistic Congress took place in Indianapolis last year, as he was nearing entry into the Church. This year, Hayward returned to Rome to speak at the Vatican’s Jubilee of Sports and to meet our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV (see image).
Hayward said of the meeting:
“It was so inspirational to see our first American pope, who, if we had gotten a chance to speak with him longer, could probably talk to us about sports in-depth, just like many Americans could—but also with an emphasis on attaining heavenly glory.”
Hayward’s gradual conversion has left him with a deeper appreciation for the work of salvation, which is both a gift of God and yet only effective for any given soul if that soul actively accepts it.
“If you love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus Christ plainly says in John 14:15. Staying in the glorious grace of God is Hayward’s main mission now, one inextricably linked to raising his beloved children well.
There are five children in the Hayward household: four born and one on the way.
The head of the Hayward household said that “whether any of them grow over six feet tall might help determine their possible NBA status in the future, but the most important thing—the only important thing, really—is making sure they follow in the footsteps of Christ.”
If you’d like Gordon Hayward to speak at an in-person event, that can be done through the Catholic Speakers Organization.