After a season-high performance in the Celtics over Brooklyn, Jayson Tatum talks about his mindset and making the right plays
Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum checks off a lot of boxes in regards to being an NBA superstar.
The 24-year-old is averaging a career-high 26.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. In addition to his scoring prowess, he's also a tremendous defensive player (leads the league in defensive win shares). Tatum takes and makes clutch shots late in games. He's gone toe-to-toe with some of the league's best players -- Trae Young, Ja Morant, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving -- over the last week and beat all of them. Tatum was an All-Star starter for the first time last month, too.
Forsberg: Best play from Tatum's big night didn't land in box score
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His 54-point performance in a win over Durant, Irving and the Brooklyn Nets at TD Garden on Sunday was a wakeup call to the rest of the league and fans outside of Boston who maybe haven't been following the Celtics' recent success -- a run highlighted by 16 victories in the last 19 games.
One person who, unsurprisingly, isn't buying the notion of Tatum being a superstar is Nick Wright.
The "First Things First" co-host made an interesting case for why Tatum hasn't yet joined that superstar class during Monday morning's show on FOX Sports 1.
Uh, what?
It's hard to argue Tatum isn't one of the top 12 players in the league right now. Wright cites Morant as a superstar because he's "skyrocketing". Tatum isn't doing that? The Celtics forward also is taking his game to another level (or two) and has a longer track record of success than the Memphis Grizzlies guard.
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Ex-NBA player admits Tatum reminds him of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant
Wright is going against one of his former takes as well. After the Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers on Opening Night of the 2018-19 season, Wright said "You've got a superstar in Jayson Tatum." Tatum is a lot better now than he was when Wright made that claim in late 2018.
The Celtics have proven a lot of people wrong over the last two-plus months. They have transformed from a team likely to lose in the first round of the playoffs to one that has a real chance of winning the Eastern Conference title.
It's been a remarkable turnaround, and Tatum has served as the primary driver of that success.