Jayson Tatum discusses what being a Celtic has meant to him, and how winning a championship cements the 2023-24 Celtics in Boston sports history.
The NBA might want to name its first Player of the Month award of each season after Jayson Tatum.
The Boston Celtics superstar was named the league's Eastern Conference Player of the Month for October/November, the league announced Tuesday. Oklahoma City's Shai-Gilgeous Alexander took home Western Conference Player of the Month honors.
The @Kia NBA Players of the Month for October & November! #KiaPOTM
— NBA (@NBA) December 3, 2024
West: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
East: Jayson Tatum pic.twitter.com/m4XkL2RPZw
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Remarkably, it's the third consecutive year that Tatum has won East Player of the Month for October/November, having also begun the 2022-23 and 2023-24 campaigns with that honor. Since the NBA began giving out separate Player of the Month awards for the Eastern and Western Conferences in 2000-01, Tatum is the only player to earn the honor in three consecutive October/Novembers.
What might be more impressive, however, is that Tatum now has five career Player of the Month awards to his name. That moves him past Hall of Famer Paul Pierce (four) for the second-most Player of the Month awards in franchise history, second only to Larry Bird, who won seven.
Considering Pierce and Bird played 19 and 13 seasons, respectively, and Tatum is less than two months into his eighth NBA season, he's on pace to blow past Bird's franchise record. (In case you're wondering, LeBron James has the most POTM awards all time, with a whopping 40.)
Tatum certainly is deserving of his latest award; he has yet to miss a game this season and is averaging 28.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game while shooting 37.4 percent from 3-point range and making 3.9 3-pointers per contest, which would be a career-high. He has nine-double doubles and has scored 30-plus points 11 times in 21 games, and his all-around dominance is a big reason why the Celtics boast a 17-4 record as of Tuesday.
Tatum and the C's are back in action Wednesday against the Detroit Pistons at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.
