WASHINGTON – The simple narrative says Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum has something to prove.
Even though he won his first NBA championship and second Olympics gold medal in 2024, Tatum wasn’t Finals MVP despite an outstanding series, and his playing time at the Paris Olympics evaporated, including no action against Serbia in group play and in the semifinals.
Tatum struggled with his jump shot in France – he missed every jumper outside the protected area – and though he earned a gold medal, he left puzzled but not angry and thinking about how he could learn from the experience.
He was reluctant to say his Olympic experience would provide extra motivation for this 2024-25 NBA season. Tatum is already one of the league’s best players, making first-team All-NBA the past three seasons.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have goals, like more championships to solidify his spot as one of the all-time great Celtics.
And …
“As a kid you set a lot of goals for yourself and I’ve been very fortunate enough to check off a lot of boxes of things that I wanted to accomplish, things that my favorite players accomplished and saying that MVP is important to me is not in any way taking away from the success of our team,” Tatum said after Boston’s 122-102 victory against Washington Thursday.
“Every guy that’s won MVP has been on a championship-contending team. If you’re an MVP, you’re dominating, you’re efficient, you’re playing the right way and you’re impacting winning so you can do both. Championship is the most important, but being the best version of yourself along the way is important as well.”
Tatum has been on the periphery of the MVP discussions, finishing sixth for the award in 2022 and 2024 and fourth in 2023.
Tatum is off to a spectacular start to his 2024-25 season, posting consecutive double-doubles: 37 points, 10 assists, rebounds, one block and one steal in a 132-109 rout of New York in the opener and 25 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and one steal against the Wizards.
He’s not seeking redemption or trying to prove a point. But his play to start the season is an unmistakable reminder that Tatum is one of the game’s absolute best players.
Tatum left Paris happy with a gold medal and telling reporters he planned to use it as an experience from which to learn and grow.
Among the lessons: He won’t be defined by one event. “In life you can learn from any situation – how to handle that, how to come out of that, how do you get over that mentally?” Celtics and Olympics teammate Jrue Holiday said.
Tatum is wise, and with more years in the NBA, he’s more comfortable revealing what he wants and who he is, such as shedding a tear when his son Deuce let him know his dad would be on the cover of NBA 2K25.
After the Olympics, Tatum took time off from basketball. Then, he returned to work, fine-tuning his jump shot with assistance from regarded skills coach Drew Hanlen.
‘I think I had a really, really good training camp as an individual working on my body, working on my conditioning, and as a teammate, I feel like we had a really great training camp, preseason games and then those practice days,’ Tatum said.
Though this is eighth season, he’s just 26 years old – just entering his prime as a player. What does Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla want to see from Tatum?
“I would say dominating all facets of the game,” Mazzulla said. “I think just his ability to do what he’s doing as far as his shot making and finding the shots that he wants to take that are best for him (and) that are best for our team. Rebounding at a high level on both ends of the floor. Defending at a high level and playmaking.
“And he has the ability to impact the game like that in different ways and that should be the norm and that’s a standard that he set for himself and he’s working towards that.”
