The complicated reality of Jayson Tatum's quest for greatness as a Celtic

https://fullcourtpress.bulletin.com/the-complicated-reality-of-jayson-tatum-s-quest-for-greatness-as-a-celtic/







The complicated reality of Jayson Tatum's quest for greatness as a Celtic



He's statistically well on his way to being among the all-time great Celtics. But without a championship, entering that hallowed ground of basketball immortality won't be easy.


Sherrod Blakely
Feb 20



CLEVELAND – While taking some promotional All-Star weekend pictures, Jayson Tatum found himself even closer than usual to Celtics basketball royalty.

Members of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary were conducting a photo shoot nearby.

Among them were Celtics legends Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, along with Kevin McHale and Robert Parish who, along with Tatum, posed for a picture.

The image of all five men together represents the complicated reality of Tatum’s world now, one where he has shown the promise of being one of the all-time greats but lacks the championship hardware that the franchise’s all-time greats possess.

It serves as both reaffirmation of how good he is in the role as the Celtics’ best player and a three-time All-Star, and motivation to someday be an NBA champion like they were when they played in Boston.

“That was incredible,” Tatum, who had eight points, five assists and four rebounds in Sunday’s All-Star game, said of the picture. “I kind of felt like I didn’t even belong in that picture with all that they’ve accomplished and what they mean to the game, especially to the Celtics. Being in that picture with them; that’s something special. That’s something I’ll frame and always remember.”

The four former Celtics represent the most recent Golden Eras of Celtics basketball, the 1980s and the late 2000s when Boston was more than just a good franchise.

They were the team that others chased, the focus of every team’s approach to the offseason with the mission being to get as close as they could to fielding a roster that could compete with the Celtics.

Tatum, 23, has already played on a pair of Celtics teams that advanced to the Eastern Conference finals.

And while this current squad isn’t expected to advance that far into the postseason, their play of late has given faint hope that maybe just maybe, this team can continue to ascend and play their way into a deep postseason run at a time when the East appears to be as wide open as we’ve seen it.

If the Celtics are to have any realistic shot at that kind of unexpected success, the play of Tatum will go far in making that happen.

This season, he’s averaging 25.7 points along with 8.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists, with the rebounding being at a career-high level.

The numbers alone speak to how impressive Tatum is this season.

But a deeper dive into his stats reveals how Tatum is on par or exceeded several franchise benchmarks in comparison to previous Celtics at a similar point in their time in Boston.

He is building the kind of resume that statistically speaking, will put him among the greatest to ever play for the Celtics.

But that success has to include at least one championship in order for him to truly be among the all-time greats in franchise history.

Having won 17 NBA titles (only the Minnesota/Los Angeles Lakers have as many championships as Boston), you won’t find anyone on any of the all-time greats in franchise history to have not won a title.

It is both a blessing and the burden of being the face of the Celtics franchise.

But with that responsibility comes an opportunity to win at the highest levels. Unlike some franchises that want to simply compete for a title, in Boston it’s an expectation.

Tatum knows this.

And like so many before him, he embraces the challenge of winning in a city where winning a lot of games isn’t enough.

Embracing that reality and meeting it head-on, is what being a Boston Celtic legend is about.

Tatum isn’t there yet.

But seeing himself surrounded by Celtics legends like the ones he spent time with this weekend, is a reminder of just how close to greatness he is.

At the rate Tatum is going, it wouldn't be all that surprising if he's named to the league's 100th anniversary team in 25 years.

"It's something I couldn't put into words, to reach that," he said.

But when it comes to being among the all-time greats in Celtics history, that's something that Tatum can literally picture.


Bob
MY NOTE:  Does he deserve to be in that pic?  Yeah, sure, why not?  Nobody's saying he's a HOFer like all of them,  nobody's saying he's a Champion like all of them, but surrounding yourself with greatness is inspirational and that's worth the price of the pic alone.  In fact, I'm feeling a little giddy that Tatum sees himself as a lifelong Celtic that wants to be in a pic with those players.  I wish Jaylen and RWill had pics with those players too, but they weren't in Cleveland for the ASG.  Imagine the heights RWill might be inspired to if he had a picture of him standing with Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Kevin "F-bomb inserted" Garnett.  Parish took 6 3pt fgas in his career (5 in 14 seasons with Boston).  McHale had 657.  KG, who had his 19' jump shot as a regular part of his offensive repertoire, only took 632 3pt fgas in 22 seasons.  Parish and McHale both had very effective mid-range games, and maybe that's all they needed in their era, but KG definitely played in the era of the 3ptr.  He could have been Dirk before there was Dirk, but he didn't need to be.  There's a lot The Time Lord could learn from any of those players' offenses that doesn't require him to go out to the arc to score.

KG got cut out of the pic I added (or maybe I just can't see it all) but in the original he's wearing nice shoes.  Same with Parish.  Kevin is wearing like deck shoes but, as we all know, his feet are permanently damaged from playing the entire playoffs on a broken foot so I cut him slack on that.  Pierce?  Wearing sneakers with formalwear?  Who dressed you that morning, Paul?  LOL.

And, lastly, look at how tall Tatum is in that pic.  I realize that camera angles can misrepresent such but if there are 5 people all being shot from the same camera shouldn't there be something we can glean from that?  He's clearly taller than 6'6"-6'7" Paul Pierce but he's no more than 1" shorter than 6'10" Kevin McHale and 2-3" (?) shorter than 7'1" Robert Parish. KG is leaning in, so that will alter his height.  




.