Jayson Tatum details Draymond Green’s offseason message fueling Celtics

Jayson Tatum had to watch the confetti fall for Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors last June. Instead of harboring any resentment, the Boston Celtics star took a key piece of advice from Green to heart before the start of the 2022-23 campaign.

Tatum spoke out on a conversation he had with Draymond during the summer in a recent piece from ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.

“That’s somebody I’m close with, so we talked for a long time,” Jayson Tatum says. “He wasn’t rubbing it in or anything. We just talked about the Finals, about life, about him getting married.

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“And he was really emphasizing that in the beginning of the training camp that we can’t just think we are going to get back there. It’s going to be different. We have to start all the way over. Everybody got to be committed. Everybody got to be ready because it’s not going to be easy. It’s not a guarantee that we get back,” Jayson Tatum continued.

Look no further than the Phoenix Suns and their early exit in last year’s playoffs after making the Finals the season prior. They came out and dominated the regular season but fell well short of expectations come postseason time.

Jayson Tatum and the Celtics have come out in similar fashion a year later, currently holding the best record in the NBA through Christmas. He knows that a return to the Finals is far from guaranteed and believes he’s mentally prepared to take on that challenge.

“My mindset was different after [the Finals],” he says. “I know what it takes now. I know what it feels like. They let me get there, and now I know what more I got to do.”