Tatum ‘wanted more' early in NBA career, now credits Celtics' approach
Jayson Tatum admitted in a sitdown with Brian Scalabrine he wanted a bigger role early in his Celtics career, but he acknowledged everything "worked out how it was supposed to" in Boston.
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Tatum ‘wanted more' early in NBA career, now credits Celtics' approach originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Jayson Tatum’s talent was evident as a 19-year-old rookie, but it wasn’t until his third season with the Boston Celtics that he was able to fully unleash his superstar potential.
The third overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft averaged 30.5 minutes but only 10.5 field goal attempts per game as a rookie. Those numbers increased to 31.1 minutes and 13.1 field goal attempts in Year 2, then in Year 3, Tatum’s professional career took off.
Tatum earned his first All-Star nod in his third season, averaging 34.3 minutes and 18.6 shot attempts per game. Since then, he has been selected to the All-Star Game each year. The 27-year-old has evolved into the face of the franchise, and now, with an NBA championship under his belt, he’s on track to go down as one of the greatest Celtics to ever step on the TD Garden parquet.
In an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Boston’s Brian Scalabrine, Tatum opened up about his growth from quiet-but-confident rookie to NBA superstar. While admitting that he wanted the ball more early in his career, he acknowledged that former Celtics coach Brad Stevens may have been right to bring him along slowly.
“My career has went as well as I could have ever thought or imagined,” Tatum told Scalabrine. “Yes, when I was younger, I was a 19-year-old rookie, and I felt like I could have been doing more. Brad (Stevens), like, ‘Yo, put me in better positions, give me the ball more.’ Like, as a young player, I had that confidence in myself that I wanted more. And again, I’ve started every game of my career, I’ve played 30 minutes, I’ve been on the floor. And maybe Brad was bringing me along at the right speed and he knew more than I did.
“So when I was younger, yeah, I wanted more. Where I’m at now, I love how everything has played out and I love where I’m at and I love the things that I’ve accomplished. And we won. We got one. So I’m not content because we want to win some more, but I think it worked out how it was supposed to.”
Tatum took a backseat to superstar Kyrie Irving for the first two years of his C’s tenure. Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Gordon Hayward, Marcus Morris, and a young Al Horford also had important roles, preventing Tatum from fully taking over.
But over the last half-decade, Tatum and Brown have established themselves as arguably the best duo in the NBA. The tandem propelled the Celtics to one of the best seasons in franchise history en route to the 2024 NBA championship, and they’re well on their way to making another run in 2025.
The Celtics, boasting a 58-20 record with four regular-season games remaining, will visit the New York Knicks on Tuesday. Barring a shocking finish to the campaign that would require the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers to lose their remaining four games, Boston will enter the 2025 postseason with the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Watch Scalabrine’s full interview with Tatum below:
