Jayson Tatum has accomplished quite a bit in his young career with the Boston Celtics including winning his first championship in June. But he was worried his playing time wasn’t going to amount to much after he was drafted No. 3 overall by Boston in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Those concerns grew when the Celtics signed Gordon Hayward.
“I get drafted, Gordon Hayward signs with the Celtics. I called my agent, like, ‘Yo, I gotta get traded.’ I’m in Summer League, before I ever played a game,” Tatum said during an appearance on the “Club 520″ podcast. “He’s like, ‘Relax. Just wait it out. You gotta chill.’ I’m like, ‘Yo, I’m trying to play. I didn’t get drafted to come off the bench and not start.’ He was like, ‘You’re in a great organization. They’re going to teach you how to play the right way.’”
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The Los Angeles Lakers were Tatum’s team growing up because he admired Kobe Bryant. And with the Lakers in rebuild mode, Tatum thought he’d get more playing time there. But Los Angeles never attended one of Tatum’s workouts, nor did he workout for the 17-time NBA champions.
Tatum ended up getting more playing time than he probably thought. Hayward suffered a gruesome leg injury minutes into his Celtics debut, which opened the door for Tatum to see more minutes. He averaged 30.5 points and helped lead Boston to the Eastern Conference Finals — where the team eventually fell to the Lebron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers.
It’s been a success run thus far in Boston for Tatum. He has five All-Star nods, two gold medals and an NBA championship. He doesn’t have an MVP to his name, but Tatum predicted that would come this year.
