Getty Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
Jayson Tatum is known for his competitive nature, and the Boston Celtics star recently took that to a new level during an interaction with an eight-year-old fan in a video that has since gone viral.
Tatum really ruthless 🤣
(via richielemay/TT)
“How old are you? When I was eight, I would have bust your a**. I would’ve cooked you, and your brother,” Tatum was filmed telling the young fan.
Tatum is coming off his best season in the NBA so far, earning himself a third straight All-Star appearance, and being named to the All-NBA first team. The budding superstar also helped lead his team to the NBA finals, where they lost to the Golden State Warriors in six games.
The St. Louis native finished the season with averages of 26.9 points, eight rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game while shooting 45.3% from the field and 35.3% from three throughout 76 regular-season games.
And let’s be honest, an eight-year-old Jayson Tatum was probably cooking 99% of kids his age, so he’s not lying.
Draymond Green Challenges Tatum to Become MVP
Since entering the NBA, Tatum has quickly proven himself to be one of the better wings in the league and has improved his skillset year on year, despite limited rest time during off-seasons.
When speaking to Draymond Green on an April 1 episode of The Draymond Green show, the Warriors star laid out a challenge for Tatum, “If you don’t get MVP next year, you’re weak as f***,” Green said.
In fairness, if Tatum hadn’t experienced a slow start to the season, which saw him wade through the biggest shooting slump of his career, there was a real possibility he could have been in MVP contention this past season. However, with so many talented stars in the league right now, the Celtics’ 24-year-old star will have his work cut out if he wants to rise to Green’s lofty challenge.
LeBron James Defends Tatum’s Finals Struggles
It would seem that Green isn’t the only NBA veteran that has respect for Tatum’s game, as Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James recently defended the young star following his struggles throughout the NBA Finals.
“Jayson Tatum is a beast.” 💪🏾
@KingJames took issue with the criticism of @jaytatum0 during the playoffs and those who criticize while never risking anything themselves.
New episode of #TheShop out now.
“Jayson Tatum is a beast. He didn’t play to his standards, but to the regular s*** standards that everybody, only people that are comfortable. Like, man, he had a hell of a season, and that guy’s not even 25 yet. He’ll be back. He got nothing to hang his hat on. He played against the same team as my first finals. I played against the Spurs. It’s the same s***. The same s***. And they took advantage of me not knowing much,” LeBron said during a July 18 episode of ‘The Shop’.