There are 48 minutes between Jayson Tatum and his first NBA championship, and whether it’s the next 48 minutes that earn him that honor or some other 48 minutes within the next week, it’s the closest thing to inevitable. And as he is showered with confetti and shortly afterwards bathed in champagne, his army of boldly audible critics will almost certainly be searching his memories for another professional basketball star to smear.
That’s the game in 2024.
Since entering the league in 1960, Jerry West could lose nine times in the NBA Finals and still become The Logo, a revered figure in the sport even before he began winning championships by building the Showtime Lakers. A quarter-century later, Charles Barkley could build a career that ranks among the league’s top 35 in scoring and rebounding (without any of that meaning a title) and receive not much more than a mild jab for the lack of rings. .
With the end of the NBA Finals series against Dallas approaching and the Celtics holding a 3-0 lead, Tatum is nearing the end of his seventh season. He has been an All-Star five times, All-NBA as a small forward four times and All-NBA first team three times. So it’s not that he’s ignoring his excellence. He makes over $30 million a year, so it’s not like he’s not receiving compensation. However, the public price an NBA star pays for his greatness is more significant than in any other American sport.
Maybe this is what the NBA needs to be to thrive. With its current broadcast contracts set to expire, the league is all but done with a series of new deals worth $76 billion over 11 years. That’s $6.9 billion a year, three times more than they receive now.
The league appears to have grown to this stature largely as a majestic athletic competition, the best league in a sport that the vast majority of Americans have played, but also as a soap opera highlighting the performances and personalities of even stars as transcendent as LeBron James. and Kevin Durant, players who would have been canonized decades ago in every market except that of their rivals, are constantly scrutinized for flaws and flaws.
“We saw it after Game 4, people saying they weren’t happy enough for Jaylen Brown,” co-host Tommy Alter said on JJ Redick’s. The Old Man and the Three Podcast, referencing Brown being voted series MVP after the Celtics eliminated the Pacers. “They’re zooming in on his face and he’s not smiling enough.
“He seems like a guy who lets his work speak for itself. And he doesn’t need to be front and center all the time, and I wonder if that hurts him.”
Tatum is a nice guy, but not an electric personality, so if he’s going to be a part of this reality show scenario, it’s going to be based primarily on his performances. Since emerging as an All-Star in his third season, Tatum has never averaged less than 23.4 points, has never shot worse than 45 percent from the field or 35 percent on three-pointers, has never captured less than 6, 0 rebounds per game. His teams have appeared in five conference finals and are in their second NBA championship series. He was also one of two superstars who rescued the US Olympic team at a time when many of his peers passed up the opportunity to play in the 2020 Games (in the summer of 2021). On a team made up of mostly elite players, and with point guard Damian Lillard caught in a slump, it was Kevin Durant and Tatum who led the Americans to gold, with Tatum scoring 19 points and grabbing 7 rebounds in a narrow victory against France.
Here’s what I knew about Tatum as a professional. I followed his development closely when he was an elite prospect who helped USA Basketball win the 2015 U19 World Cup before entering his senior year of high school and during his lone season with the Duke Blue Devils.
Blissfully unaware that his time with the Celtics had turned into national voices blaming him for his propensity to attempt jumpers, his sometimes iffy jumper and the Celtics’ inability to yet win a title while many in the media of Boston and its surroundings defend it with statistics. and facts.
For example, when the Celtics opened this series at home and Tatum scored just 34 points in the two games combined, he was punished nationally for not leading the team in scoring. He had been the subject of almost constant double and triple attacks and chose to make the right play rather than force the action. The results were two Celtics wins, a combined +25 rating for Tatum’s time on the court and a near triple-double in Game 2. He’s averaging 6.2 assists in the 2024 playoffs, as if he were the point guard of someone.
What the Jayson Tatum story should be is how someone who is neither freakishly dynamic (like Anthony Edwards), nor freakishly skilled for his size (like Kevin Durant), and not an incredibly accurate shooter (like Steph Curry) has managed to build himself same. towards this degree of stardom.
He is a 6-8 wing with a 32.5-inch vertical jump. That won’t lead to any comparisons with Dominique Wilkins. He is a 37.5 percent pro shooter from deep and makes about three per game from that range, which is not what one might have expected from Ray Allen. And yet, through the force of his skill and will, with the advantage of a 6-11 wingspan, Tatum has established himself as one of the NBA’s best players in an era where competition is not not only at a national level, but at a global level.
And, in about 48 more minutes, he will be champion.
The ring will remain standing forever. However, the peace it will bring will not be as lasting.
