Gordon Hayward said Friday he "really wanted" a return to the Boston Celtics despite widespread interest during his trip to free agency, which ended in November with him joining the Charlotte Hornets as part of a sign-and-trade deal that featured a four-year, $120 million contract.

Hayward told Sam Amick of The Athletic he also generated interested from the Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks:

"Yeah, Atlanta was a team that I was really interested in. I think they're another group of guys who are obviously young but extremely talented and you saw the additions that they added in the offseason. I think they're a great basketball team. Clearly, Trae Young is an extremely talented player and somebody they're going to rely on. So being able to play with him, and play with some of their other young players was really enticing, so they were in the mix.

"New York was in the mix—the Knicks. Indiana was another team that was really interested, and we had mutual interest for a while. Boston was—like, let's not forget about Boston. I really wanted to go back to Boston too. There were just a lot of options, and a lot of potential teams that I could go to, but I'd say those were the main ones. Atlanta, New York, Boston, Indiana, and then Charlotte obviously."

Hayward has enjoyed a strong start to his tenure with the Hornets. He's averaged a team-high 22.2 points to go along with 5.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.2 steals while shooting 49.3 percent from the field, including 40.9 percent on threes, across 13 appearances.

It would have been difficult for Boston to match that type of financial commitment to the 30-year-old forward because of its depth of talent on the wing, led by Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart.

The Celtics instead opted for a quieter free-agent period, signing point guard Jeff Teague and center Tristan Thompson to provide depth in other areas of the roster.

Although Hayward's stay with the Celtics didn't live up to expectations, in large part because of serious leg and ankle injuries suffered in his October 2017 team debut, he told Amick there were a lot of "great experiences" during his time in Boston before another ankle injury in last year's playoffs:

"I honestly shouldn't have come back and played, but tried to play through it and wasn't able to be myself, so I don't think we had our full team there at the end. So it was disappointing, but not necessarily stuff that you can control. Injuries happen. Those types of things happen. But I had great experiences besides those things in Boston, built great relationships, still have good relationships with the coaches and some of the players there. I have no regrets about anything that happened in Boston, and I really appreciate all the fan support—for supporting me through a wild ride of ups and downs."

Now he's healthy again and producing at a level closer to his final season with the Utah Jazz (2016-17) when he earned his only career All-Star selection.

Both of his old teams are off to strong starts, however, with Utah (11-4) and Boston (8-5) near the top of their respective conferences, while Charlotte stands at 6-8.

The Hornets will look to snap a three-game losing streak Friday night when they welcome the Chicago Bulls to the Spectrum Center.