The 2021-22 NBA season has been very crucial in Jayson Tatum’s rise to becoming one of the best players in the league. While most people believed that he had the potential to be considered a top 10 player in the league at some point in his career, he was being neglected from the list due to a lack of success in the postseason.
But this postseason, Tatum silenced his haters with a sensational playoff run. He carried the Boston Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals while defeating many amazing teams in the Eastern Conference.
Although the Celtics are on the verge of losing to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, this run by Tatum is likely the first of many in his career. So it is safe to assume that the Celtics’ future is in safe hands with Jayson Tatum being the main man for the franchise.
But did you know that when Tatum revealed his dream to become an NBA player in his childhood, he was laughed at by his classmates? Moreover, his teacher told him to have a realistic dream instead of making it to the NBA.
“My mom always found a way to put me in private schools, which I’m thankful for, but it’s just that we live two totally different lives. So I’m already borderline intimidated when I got to school. I just remember in 4th grade, the teacher talking about, you know, ‘I want everyone to write a paragraph on what they wanna be when they get older’. So all the kids wanna do what they parents do. They wanna be doctors, dentists, lawyers.”
He continued, “And she came around me and I was like I wanna be in the NBA one day and I want y’all to see me on TV. She looked at me and she was like, ‘You gotta pick something more realistic’. And I remember everyone in the class kinda laughed at me. And I like, I was embarrassed, and I remember I was crying. And I told my mom, and I’ll never forget she told me that as long as she believes in me, as long as she’s gonna support me, it don’t matter what nobody else think. That’s something I always took with me.”
Tatum’s mother supported him in every step of his journey to the NBA. If it weren’t for her, maybe we would have never seen Tatum showcase his amazing talent at this level.
So thanks to her for supporting her son and giving the league a bright star who will be entertaining fans for years to come.
