It’s safe to say Brad Stevens was fuming when an anonymous coach threw shade at Jayson Tatum by claiming he doesn’t care about winning right now. The Boston Celtics have had a rough start to the season, with Tatum and Jaylen Brown earning some criticism for the team’s early struggles.
That’s why an anonymous coach came after the player, saying he doesn’t care about winning, and if he does, he only wants to do it on his own terms.
“Jayson Tatum is about Jayson Tatum,” an Eastern Conference assistant coach said. “I don’t think he cares about winning now, and if he does, it is on his terms.
“He doesn’t want to score 15 and win. He wants to score 39 and win.”
Former Celtics head coach and current president of basketball operations Brad Stevens reacted to those comments, asking people to not say things if they wouldn’t take responsibility when it backfires.
Via Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston:
“If you can’t put your name on it, don’t say it. There is no way that an assistant coach would put his name on that quote because, first of all, he has never been around Jayson. And, secondly, Jayson would kill him every time he played him for the rest of his career. That’s the way those guys in this league are wired…”
“I take it with such a grain of salt. To me that line was a joke because I’m around him every day. You look at him, he plays, he’s available, he competes, he’s got a lot on his plate. He’s done a lot more in his first five years in the league than most of the league, right? Totally totally wrong in that guy’s assessment.”
Stevens says he was so upset with the quotes that he reacted when he normally ignores those things.
“I thought that quote was absolutely ridiculous, to be honest. I don’t ever react to that stuff and I actually sent a note to one of the people work with like, ‘This is idiotic: Just be around this guy every day. That guy loves to win. He’s sitting there with his feet in the ice bucket after every game that we lose and he looks despondent. This guy’s competitive. I know that for a fact. I’m glad he’s on our team.”
Jayson Tatum has been one of the most promising young players in the league for some time now, and he’s getting ready to enter the best years of his career. He’s only 23 and has a lot of room to improve. The Celtics still need to put the right pieces around him and Jaylen Brown, but once that happens, it’ll be great for the C’s and terrible for the rest of the NBA.
Right now they rank 8th in the East with a 12-10 record. Tatum averages 24.4 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists per outing in 22 games this season.
