Jae Crowder Went Off On The Hometown Boston Fans For Cheering Gordon Hayward

The Boston Celtics picked up an impressive 115-104 win over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday evening and, with that, you would think that players on the team would be in a good mood in the aftermath. Jae Crowder, however, was not in such a positive place.

The talented forward took exception to Boston’s crowd cheering for current Jazz swingman Gordon Hayward during pregame introductions, indicating that he took the applause for the opposition as a sign of disrespect.

Hayward, who played college ball for Celtics head coach Brad Stevens at Butler, can become a free agent by turning down a player option at the end of the season and could generate interest from a team like Boston. That would appear to explain the cheering from fans assembled in the arena, but Crowder didn’t stop at his pregame comments.

In fact, he hopped on Twitter and shared more disbelief and outrage.

From there, the 26-year-old forward was prompted by a fan to “take it or leave it” from the Boston faithful and he provided an illuminating response, which he later deleted:

At this point, it would seem aggressive to think that Crowder was so bothered that he actually wants out of his current situation with the Celtics but irritation definitely occurred in this spot. Crowder did respond with 21 points, including five three-pointers, in the game in helping to lead his team to victory but the feelings he caught during pregame introductions clearly haven’t passed just yet. Celtics fans probably have big-picture aspirations beyond a regular season game in early January, but don’t tell that to current players on the squad.