Jayson Tatum, the youngest player in Boston Celtics history to reach 10,000 points this week, revealed some startling worries he had before moving to Beantown.
Jayson Tatum has progressed from a talented lottery pick to a legitimate league superstar in his first seven seasons in Boston. His development has been gradual, as he went from averaging slightly more than 13 points in his rookie season to an MVP candidate averaging more over 30 points per game over the following two seasons.
Because of his ascension and steadiness, he has earned a position in the illustrious history of the Boston Celtics team. On Saturday, the 25-year-old became the team’s youngest player to reach 10,000 career points. Antoine Walker, the former record holder, was over a year behind.
“It’s crazy to think about a thousand points,” Tatum remarked after his team’s 124-114 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. “I remember telling my mother when I was a kid that I wanted to play in the NBA. “I never imagined I’d be one of the best players, but to actually be one is a surreal feeling.”
Jayson Tatum was terrified of playing for the Boston Celtics in his debut season.
Tatum’s 10,016 points rank 14th all-time for the Celtics, and he arguably has another decade of high-level basketball ahead of him. However, he had reservations about his degree of success in Boston when he first entered the league in 2017.
Following the victory, Tatum stated that when he was picked by the team eight years ago, he wasn’t sure he could achieve the standard that the team had begun to set following back-to-back winning seasons before he joined the roster.
“Man, I was ignorant when I got drafted,” he told me. “First and foremost, I didn’t want to come because I didn’t think I’d be able to play.” They had Gordon [Hayward], Jaylen Brown, Isaiah Thomas, and [Marcus] Smart on their squad, and I didn’t think I was talented enough to be on it. So it never occurred to me how to end a game or how to finish. I was simply more focused with getting in the game and getting started.”
Tatum has clearly outperformed those early doubts, and he is now a four-time All-Star who will almost certainly earn a fifth this season.
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