Hurley: Let’s not bury Jayson Tatum’s career, people

BOSTON — These days, with this media world, in this media market, you never know exactly which people you’re responding to. Is it the radio hosts? The radio callers? The vociferous fans who represent a small minority rather than a large majority? It’s hard to say.

Regardless of whether it’s a strong surge or a minor squeak, I’ll nevertheless come out and say this: Please do not use this NBA Finals to conclude that Jayson Tatum is not and cannot ever be a championship player. 

Even before the Warriors closed the books on the Celtics’ title hopes, you heard it. He doesn’t have heart. He can’t be a No. 1. He’s not built for this stage. He’s not a real superstar. (The afternoon show on The Sports Hub has actually started calling him Tuukka Tatum, which is a phrase that enters the multiverse of idiocy. But that’s neither here nor there.)

The voices are certain to get louder as the hours and days and weeks and months wear on following this Finals loss.

But please … keep perspective.

Jayson Tatum is the clear-cut No. 1 on his team. He is 24 years old. That team just made it to the NBA Finals, and though they lost the series, they did so to the best team of their generation, a Warriors team that has now won four of the last eight titles. A dynasty. A championship-driven, championship-proven team, full of champions, coached by champions, built by champions.

Losing in the NBA Finals to that Warriors team is nothing to be ashamed of.

Add to that the fact that winning in the NBA at a young age is hard. Sure, Kobe Bryant did it, but he had 28-year-old Shaquille O’Neal lighting the way.

But LeBron James didn’t win a title until he was 27. Michael Jordan was 28. Stephen Curry was 27. Kevin Durant was 28. Anthony Davis was 27. Giannis Antetokounmpo was 26. Dirk Nowitzki was a week shy of his 33rd birthday when he won his first title.

You get the idea. These weren’t just good young players. They weren’t just great young players. These were some of the best players of all time. And still, it took them time to drive their teams to championships. 

That the 24-year-old Tatum and the 25-year-old Jaylen Brown weren’t quite ready to topple the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals does not mean their careers are doomed. The fact that they got to the Finals and were good enough to give Golden State an honest competition probably means the Celtics franchise is in very good hands. 

Certainly, it’s not a requirement that a No. 1 can’t win until his late 20s. Tim Duncan won at age 23 … though David Robinson was still playing 35 minutes per game in that playoff run. Tony Parker was 21 … but he had Duncan. Kawhi Leonard was 23 … but he had Duncan and Parker. Dwyane Wade was 24, but like Kobe, he also had Shaq.

A star player winning in his early 20s as the best player on his team can happen. Sure. Anything can happen. But it’s not common. And it shouldn’t be expected.

The fact is, Jayson Tatum has been in the league for five seasons, and he’s gotten better every single year. His points have gone up year-to-year. As have his rebounds. As have his assists. He’s made three straight All-Star Games. He was Third Team All-NBA in 2020. He made First Team this year. 

Could it be possible that he never gets back to the Finals? That this was as good as it can get for a Celtics team led by Tatum and Brown? That the lucky break of facing a Khris Middleton-less Bucks team and an undermanned Heat team is the only reason the Celtics made it as far as they did? That years and years of second-round exits await the franchise? 

Sure. It’s also possible that we all get obliterated by a rocky space fragment at any given moment. But do you want to go through your life waiting for unlikely doom to descend upon you?

Everything about Jayson Tatum’s career trajectory has him projecting to be among the very best players in the NBA for the next five, seven, maybe 10 years. If he continues on that pace, and the Celtics continue to build around him, the championships will surely come. If they can come two games from a title with Tatum at 24 and Brown at 25, how can they not be considered a serious threat to the rest of the league for years to come?

Undoubtedly, Tatum did not have a good series. Nobody could say otherwise. He averaged 21.5 points per game but also shot 36.7 percent from the field while averaging just under four turnovers per game. After averaging 25 points per game vs. Miami and 27.6 points per game vs. Milwaukee and 29.5 points per game vs. Brooklyn, Tatum clearly struggled as the competition got better throughout the postseason. And on the biggest stage, he wasn’t ready to play at the level required to win a title. Not against the Warriors, anyway. (If the Celtics lucked out and faced, say, the Mavericks or Grizzlies or Suns, we’d likely be having a different conversation right now.)

He wasn’t ready right now. That doesn’t mean he never will be.

Obviously, preaching patience doesn’t do much for TV and radio ratings, and they wouldn’t sell newspapers, if selling newspapers was still a viable term in 2022. But looking at the state of the Celtics and their best player through a reasonable set of eyes sees a situation that should be a rather good one for the team moving forward.

Maybe that’s just stating the obvious. Nevertheless, it’s still worth saying. 

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.