BOSTON — Long before anyone publicly even speculated about the date of Jayson Tatum’s return as March approached and the announcement by the Celtics to begin February that Tatum participated in a Maine Celtics practice, Tatum quietly joined a scrimmage with his Boston teammates in Miami. The NBA schedule afforded the Celtics two off days there between Jan. 13-14, and only eight months removed from Achilles surgery, Tatum cut back line behind the defense and dunked.
“I was like, ‘Oh, he’s feeling good,'” Xavier Tillman Sr. told CLNS Media earlier this week. “That kind of let me know how well he was feeling. During those scrimmages, you could definitely see the progression. You could see how well his rehab went and how serious he was taking it. The thing he was doing was just being consistent. He was in there six days a week doing something for his body, whether it was strictly for his calf and his Achilles, or cardio, or strength work that day. He was always in the gym. I really credit him for that.”
Tatum’s quiet scrimmage work and practice participation, which remained secret deep into February as the team protected his recovery timeline, shrouded if, when and how fully Tatum would return from his Achille surgery. Damian Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton, injured at similar times in the spring, decided to remain out for the entire 2025-26 season. Haliburton announced his return to 5-on-5 play on Wednesday, nearly 10 months following his surgery. Tatum returned to the floor for the Celtics for a Mar. 6 win over the Mavs around that time.
And while many expected a significant minutes restriction, Tatum logged the first six minutes of the first and second quarters, finishing scoreless and missing a driving dunk. Then, he returned for a third rotation before halftime when he emerged with a put-back dunk and corner three on his way to 27 minutes and a double-double. Three weeks later, he’d reach 36 minutes and score 26 points against Atlanta before traveling to Charlotte, where he played for the first time in front of Tillman Sr., who reached out to him before the game.
“Man, that night pissed me off,” Tillman said. “I just remember texting him going into his first game, asking him how he’s feeling. He was talking about his nerves and everything.”
“You’re really going to make it when you score 30 in a game,” Tillman told him.
“Yeah, I feel that. I feel that,” Tatum replied.
“And then his first 30-point game was against us,” Tillman said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, bro, I hate you.”
“Bro, I had it just for you,” Tatum said, scoring 23 points on 12-for-23 shooting with Brown out against the league’s hottest team on the road.
“I was like, ‘yeah, ok, I think he’s getting close,'” Tillman remembered. “For him, it’s his strength, and once he gets his strength and his cardio back to where he wants it to be, it’s going to really be a big difference.”
Joe Mazzulla continued stressing that conditioning factor as Tatum mostly struggled through rough shooting nights by his standards in his return. He began repeating a familiar refrain, give the game what it needs, as Tatum played through spurts of feeling like himself and others where he labored. While Brown took a statistical hit initially and the Celtics ran actions to re-integrate their other star, the pair eventually settled into a flow with Tatum initiating plays and Brown finishing them. Tatum’s 5.9 assists per 36 minutes since his return marked a career high. Over his last six games, he posted 7.8 APG with only 2.8 turnovers.
Yet despite recovering that effectively, doubt remained about whether he would play this season as January concluded. Tatum appeared on the Pivot Podcast after making his return to 5-on-5 action and expressed concerns about fitting into a team that already achieved success. Chris Haynes soon reported that Tatum was re-evaluating his decision to return this season.
“I’m still trying to figure it out,” Tatum told CLNS shortly after the trade deadline. “Still just going through the progressions of rehab. Not saying I’m coming back or I’m not. It’s all about being 100% healthy and going through the plan of this protocol.”
Brad Stevens, however, pointed to that time as one where it became apparent that Tatum could physically return from his injury this season last week while recounting his journey. He even quipped that, with his front seat view to Tatum’s recovery process, that videos and headlines revealing Tatum’s return to 5-on-5 activity proved far less surprising to him. Once Tatum thrived in his appearance in a Maine Celtics practice on Feb. 9, Boston knew its superstar forward would return.
Ron Harper Jr. traveled to the Rising Stars tournament at All-Star weekend knowing as much too. He told CLNS then that he participated in the scrimmage and thought Tatum looked great. Harper and others across the organization stayed mostly tight-lipped about details surrounding Tatum’s recovery this winter, but in catching up with various participants in scrimmages since, he stood in a strong position to play even then.
“They just told us two or three days before that,” Max Shulga told CLNS. “We were on a road trip and were going to come back and (drove) down and (scrimmaged) … we treated it as an opportunity for us to get better, playing against a player like him. You want to be ready. You don’t want to get punked or anything like that. So just be competitive and put your best foot forward and also work on our stuff at the same time. It was good for us, I would say, for sure.”
John Tonje, who watched Tatum’s career progress across his college career between Colorado State, Missouri and Wisconsin, couldn’t believe he now saw the Celtics star dribbling toward him in the showcase. Harper Jr. also defended Tatum, recalling that he only hoped to get half of a stop and would’ve considered it a success. Hugo González said Tatum probably scored over 30 points.
The Celtics assigned González, who never played in Maine through his rookie season due to his defensive prowess, and seven-foot rookie Amari Williams to the scrimmage to further support Tatum’s recovery process. González had greeted Tatum in the training room upon arrival in Boston after the Celtics drafted him in June. While both players talked to and learned from Tatum while he remained sidelined, their greatest lesson came when they played against him for the first time.
“He just controls everything that happens on the floor,” González said. “As nobody can. Hesitations and everything, and then he’s 6-8, 6-9, can dribble like a guard and he shoots over you every time. So he’s kind of un-guardable.”
“When you’re in college, you see a lot of guys attack with one speed. It might just be a case that they’re quicker than everybody else,” Williams told CLNS. “The change of speed that he and the other guys have is something you can definitely see up close that you may not be able to see on TV.”
Tatum joined the Celtics on their west coast road trip later that month and laced up his shoes, took some light shots and appeared ready to join his teammates for their practice in Santa Barbara. He said that aside from an optional workout with teammates Jordan Walsh and Luka Garza in San Francisco days prior, he hadn’t officially practiced with the Boston Celtics yet. Mazzulla dodged the question of whether he would that afternoon, saying they hadn’t made a plan yet. The following day, he went silent when asked if Tatum practiced.
It all aimed to protect Tatum’s recovery process, but by then a documentary began airing on NBC recounting the process that stood nearly completed. Tatum said he didn’t have a return date as rumors followed NBC flexing the Mar. 1 game between Philadelphia and Boston as a signal that Tatum would play. He didn’t, though the team’s next national TV showcase against Dallas a week later became the date, less than 10 months following his return.
In-between former teammate Grant Williams called Tatum to check in on his mindset having just returned from his own year-long recovery following his 2024 ACL tear. They shared how that absence from the court can grow dark, how friends like Amile Jefferson, Sang and photographer Bred Hampton lit up his days. After a 20-minute conversation, he also sensed that imminent return. They’re gonna roll with him when he returns.
And with that step now in the books — 24 points, 11 rebounds and 5.9 assists per 36 minutes across 16 games — having him full go for the playoffs provides the Celtics an unexpected chance to roll to a championship.
“What we said was always the case,” Stevens said last week. “He wasn’t going to be until he was 110%, met every threshold, had fully reconditioned and he felt good … then it’s just a matter of … getting your confidence back in a lot of ways and playing and being back on the court. We did a lot of small games and had the Maine team down and got a chance to play a little bit of live (action) on the start of the post-All-Star trip. You could see that not only was he going to come along pretty quickly, but you could also see that he was getting more eager to play. So it was a really well thought out process by Dr. (Martin) O’Malley and Nick Sang and Phil Kohl and followed to strictly by Jayson.”
“Everybody involved with that gets a lot of credit because of the amount of work that everybody put into it, nobody more than Jayson, with a close second by Nick. It was pretty incredible to watch up close. I got a front row seat to the whole thing, so I wasn’t sitting on the edge of my seat like others were the first time they saw him run up and down the court playing five-on-five.”
