BOSTON — A fresh start begins for Jayson Tatum in one week when the Celtics travel to Cleveland for their first preseason game. The following Monday, Oct. 10, marks 17 months since he underwent Achilles surgery. He keeps the months and milestones in his head, mentioning them on media day on Monday and on Thursday when he spoke following his first two practices of his first full training camp back.
Tatum estimates he reached 80% of himself during his 16-game regular season return in March and six postseason appearances that resulted in an injury to the back of his knee that held him out of Game 7. Before last year, Tatum only missed 51 regular season games across his career through eight seasons, and never sat out a playoff game before a wrist ailment cost him one against Orlando. Nearly three weeks later, an awkward step in Madison Square Garden landed him in a boot, watching the final two games of a franchise-altering loss to the Knicks, and 66 before he played again. He’s still awaiting a full return to form.
“Mentally and from a conditioning standpoint, I wasn’t myself,” Tatum said on Thursday. “But I think for me … it was great from a mentality standpoint just to get over that hurdle of playing. Even if I was at 80% of myself, knowing I could still be effective and I think just going into the offseason knowing I got the whole summer to get my body right and get into the rhythm of playing basketball again. I feel so much more confident from a mental standpoint and physically than I did last March, and that’s how it should be. It’s a long journey from the injury I had and I feel great.”
That year and change also saw nearly the entirety of the 2024 championship team he attempted to repeat with depart in trades and free agency, Kristaps Porziņģis and Al Horford now Warriors, Luke Kornet reaching the Finals with the Spurs, Jrue Holiday in Portland and even locker room staple Xavier Tillman Sr. sent to Charlotte one month before Tatum’s debut against Dallas. Then, the move that shook the NBA world and surprised Tatum, too. Boston traded Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia.
In Brown, Tatum and the Celtics had an experienced secondary scorer who could also take over the offense and lead, as he did on his way to a Second Team All-NBA appearance as Boston’s leading scorer on the way to scoring the second seed. Brown embraced becoming the team’s vocal leader following Marcus Smart’s exit in 2023, the veteran both stars began their careers looking up to and often deferring leadership qualities to. Now, set to face Brown and his loaded 76ers team six times beginning next Saturday, Tatum sits in a similar position. More opportunity, more room to assert his voice and to play a different style that the team plans to discover as training camp progresses.
“From the outside looking in, I always thought he was one of the best players in the league,” Mike Conley Jr. said. “Getting to know him now, he’s a guy that I feel like is really coming into his own as a leader, a guy that’s ready to make a jump, I think after the last couple of years with the injury.”
“He called everybody (this summer) and said, let’s go workout, let’s go meet. Let’s spend about 7-8 days out (in Los Angeles), go golf, go out to eat. I feel like he’s setting up all kinds of things off the court. He’s bringing in huddles after practices. After every workout we we have, he has something to say, calling guys out, just really taking ownership of the situation, so that’s big.”
Conley signed as a free agent to join a signature NBA franchise that despite facing significant losses on the roster and losing a 3-1 lead in devastating fashion to Philadelphia in April, continues to garner projections as one of the best teams in the league. Some of that stems from Joe Mazzulla’s resilient coaching, scoring a Coach of the Year victory for his motivational tactics, scheme and the team’s development system that allowed a cast of eight players with little-no NBA experience to emerge as effective contributors. And they did so without Tatum, who emerged as one of the league’s best passing forwards before his injury.
Then there’s George, the former icon who Tatum and scores of other players in their mid-late 20s who remember his battles with LeBron James while he starred for the Indiana Pacers. A whirlwind of trades across Oklahoma City, Los Angeles and an ill-fated move to Philadelphia reduced his reputation, and perhaps played as large of a role in the shock of the Brown trade as the central return for Boston alongside future draft selections. But Tatum loved it.
“I’m around that generation of kids that grew up watching him … when I was in middle school and high school, he definitely was one of the guys who when I was coming up, I watched a lot of film on. Just that archtype of two-way player, 6-9, can score on all three levels. So he was definitely somebody when I was in high school, college and even early in my career who I would always try to steal things from and watch what I was doing, because of the way that I play and his ability. A lot of things translated for me.”
George also watched his career nearly end early, crashing into a stanchion playing for Team USA in 2014 and fracturing his right tibia. He missed nearly the entire season that followed and like Tatum, miraculously recovered in time to play six games at the end. To prove to himself that he can still do it. He went on to score four more All-NBA seasons over the six years that followed, including a third-place MVP season in 2019. Injuries from persistent left knee soreness to groin and hamstring strains, and an elbow surgery that derailed his 2022 season sidelined him often and dampened his reputation as one of the league’s best players.
He feels great following his first healthy summer in recent memory, and now views his role as accentuating Tatum while tapping into his former self. George argued he already showed that against the Celtics in the playoffs, catching them off guard with how well he could move. That would provide Tatum with the three-point shooting, defending and play-making sidekick who can make his life easier. While they don’t talk about George’s recovery, the veteran did note how going through that career-altering experience can transform your game. Make you a different player. One prepared for a new era.
For all the retrospectives on his partnership with Brown, how they thrived enough to win a championship and failed in other seasons while drawing enormous scrutiny throughout, the end felt sudden. Tatum voiced his appreciation for it in multiple interviews over the past month and stopped there. He and the Celtics want to move forward, and while the reminder of that past and a move many won’t soon forget will remain just several hundred miles south, within the same division, the teammates who remain sense him focused on what’s next. League MVP, a Finals MVP, the two achievements left for him to score on his resume are well within reach.
“He has a lot to prove and he’s out there trying to prove it,” Conley said.
