Jayson Tatum has been no stranger to criticism over the years, especially after a pair of crushing postseason exits in 2022 and 2023.
Granted, some of that chatter quieted down this spring — especially after Tatum and the Celtics finally got over the hump and won a record-breaking 18th championship.
Tatum himself expressed relief on Monday about the validation finally granted by winning a championship.
“You know, just being the topic of discussion of so many debates or whatever it is. ‘Can he lead a team? Is he a top-five player?’ ” Tatum told The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach. “There’s still a lot of things I guess they can debate, but I’ve done some things they can’t debate. I won a championship.
“I did it at the highest level. So having that under my belt, like, obviously there’s still conversations to be had or whatever people want to say, but they’ve always got to refer to me as an NBA champion.”
Tatum’s resume might speak for itself at this point. But that still hasn’t hindered longtime sports contrarian Skip Bayless to take umbrage with Tatum’s standing among the NBA’s greats.
Harkening back to a debate brewed up amid the 2024 NBA Finals between the Celtics and Mavericks, Bayless argued that Tatum is still not even the best player on the Celtics’ roster.
“Jayson Tatum is really, really good. There’s no doubt about that, and he is undoubtedly a champion forever,” Bayless said on FS1’s “Undisputed” on Tuesday. “And it will never be taken from him. I’ve sat in this seat and first guessed this for three years, ‘I’m sorry, he’s not the best player on his own team.’ He’s just not. I root against them (Boston) and I pick against them. I watch and the guy who terrorizes me, who makes me sweat watching the game is always the other guy (Jaylen Brown).
“Take nothing away from Jayson Tatum because he’s really, really good. … He’s got all the right intangibles, but the closer on that team, the guy that strikes fear in my heart is the other guy. And I’ve always felt sorry for the other guy because had to play in the shadow that was inflicted upon him by the team because they coronated Jayson before he really did too much because he was Jayson Tatum from Duke, high pick and we get that.”
Brown did have a postseason for the ages with Boston, taking home both Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals MVP honors in series victories over the Pacers and Mavericks.
But even with a shooting slump during the Finals (38.8 field goal percentage, 26.3 3-point field goal percentage), Tatum still managed to impact the game in a variety of ways against Dallas — especially in terms of his playmaking.
The 26-year-old forward averaged 22.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 7.2 assists over the five-game series against Dallas — including a dominant clinching performance in Game 5 at TD Garden (31 points, eight rebounds, 11 assists).
Still, that didn’t stop Bayless from leaning into the same familiar discourse over which of Boston’s two All-Star talents offer greater value to their team.
“The point is I was rooting harder for Jaylen Brown because he did some things that astonished me and made me very happy for him because who was the MVP of the Eastern Conference finals? It wasn’t Jayson Tatum, it was Jaylen Brown,” Bayless said. “Who was the MVP of the NBA Finals? It was Jaylen Brown. I was like, ‘Whoa.’
“It’s beautiful to watch because he deserved that, and I thought he earned that because the biggest shots made in the playoffs and in the Finals were made by Jaylen Brown. … The other guy is really good in different ways because the other guy is explosively athletic in ways I don’t think Jayson Tatum is.
“In the end, I’m talking about explosive athleticism with fire in the belly. I look at Jaylen Brown’s face and I go, he scares me because he is a cold-blooded killer. And I don’t know if Jayson has quite that stuff operating, that kind of fire burning deep down inside him.”
While Bayless continues to argue over which of Brown or Tatum is the Celtics’ “cold-blooded killer,” Boston can move forward with the luxury of knowing both stars can share the court and dominate together in 2024-25 and beyond.
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