Jayson Tatum is the best player on the Boston Celtics, trying to lead the squad to the promised land for the first time since 2008. The forward is trying his best to mesh with Jaylen Brown and deliver the 18th championship to the Greens.
Unfortunately, the young duo has been unable to reach the NBA Finals, only playing in the Eastern Conference championship series in the 2020 Orlando bubble. This season, they’ve been under criticism for their inability to lift the team’s level.
Tatum has been criticized for not being a vocal leader, but the player isn’t paying much attention to that. He knows the Celtics have had much more outspoken leaders in the past, but he has his own way to deal with teammates, stating he’s constantly communicating with them.
“They don’t know me, and they don’t know our environment, or they didn’t speak to any of the guys I play with, and it’s always been baffling to me that, they are not in it, but they get to critique what you’re doing and they don’t know anything about it.”
“It’s like yeah, I’m not the most vocal, but I talk to my teammates all the time and the guys that I play with, the guys in the organization; they know, you gotta be yourself and me as much as I love him; my personality is not like Kevin Garnett and that doesn’t work for me, and I got to be true to myself and do things in my own way for it to be genuine.”
Boston indeed had leaders that spoke a lot and didn’t hesitate to hurt people’s feelings trying to get the best from them. Larry Bird was like that, Kevin Garnett was like that, and these precedents make people in Boston and around the league wish they can see something similar from JT.
We’ve seen him having heated conversations with Dennis Schroder on the court, while also replying to teammate Marcus Smart after the latter criticized him and Jaylen Brown for not passing the ball.
The Celtics aren’t in a good position right now, ranking 10th in the Eastern Conference standings, struggling to get things going. After making some changes in the front office, parting ways with Kemba Walker, and even reuniting with Al Horford, the C’s haven’t found their touch.
The bright side is that they have two young stars for the future, but they need to build the best team around them to aspire to the title.
