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When Gordon Hayward broke his ankle just over five minutes into his first game with the Boston Celtics, it was a pretty horrific scene. It was visually upsetting as both the injury and the sheer agony on Hayward's face were hard to watch.

On Thursday morning, the 27-year-old Hayward appeared in a sit-down interview with Matt Lauer on "The Today Show" to talk about the experience. From the sound of things, the pain from the injury itself may not have been what hurt Hayward the most during the incident. 

Instead, Hayward seemed to be most shaken up by the reaction from his parents, who were sitting nearby as he laid on the court in agony.

It's clear that seeing his parents so upset was emotionally straining on Hayward, and that's pretty understandable -- especially since he has two young children of his own. 

"As a parent, you don't want your child to go through that," said Hayward. "As a parent myself, thinking I would rather take their pain. This is where it makes me emotional because I wouldn't want [my daughters Bernadette and Charlotte] to go through that. I remember seeing my mom crying and that's just tough. It's tough to see your parents cry because it makes you emotional"

The good news, though, is that Hayward is expected to make a full recovery and seems to be in relatively good spirits. He says he's taking the recovery process day-by-day and has gotten some help from fellow athletes who have been in similar situations, including Thunder forward Paul George. 

There's no doubt that the injury took an emotional toll on Hayward, who said he'll never forget looking down and seeing his foot pointing in the wrong direction.

"It felt like forever before the doctors and the trainers ran over because, for a moment there, I'm just looking at it and that's when I grabbed my head like, 'oh no, this is not good.' When they finally popped it back into place it hurt, and when they were carting me out that's when it hit me emotionally...like, am I done? Is this my career? Is this over?"

However, Hayward certainly doesn't seem to be short on confidence in his recovery at this point in time, as he told Lauer that he is going to "come back better than ever, and I firmly believe that." 

You can watch the full interview below.

This is Hayward's first season in Boston after signing a four-year, $128 million deal with the Celtics during the offseason. He spent his first seven years in the NBA with the Utah Jazz, including an All-Star campaign last season.