Jayson Tatum

Jayson Tatum (born March 3, 1998, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.) is a standout forward for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Selected by the team as the third pick in the 2017 NBA draft, Tatum is a gifted all-around player but is especially known for his offense. In a 2021 game he scored 60 points.

Early life

Tatum was born to Brandy Cole (later Cole-Barnes) and Justin Tatum. His mother had just graduated from high school when she found out she was pregnant, and by that point she and Justin Tatum had already broken up. Jayson Tatum’s first foray into basketball was playing in the bathtub. “We had a suction cup basketball hoop on the wall, and I would shoot for hours. I think I was pretty good at that,” he told Sports Illustrated in 2015. He was encouraged to take up the sport by his father, who played basketball in college and later in Europe. Justin Tatum’s best friend, NBA player Larry Hughes, is Jayson Tatum’s godfather.

When he was eight, Tatum was introduced to NBA superstar LeBron James by Hughes, a teammate of James. In 2015 Tatum recounted the experience in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “I got to go to practice one day, shoot around and rebound for LeBron James. That was still an unreal experience.”

Chaminade and Duke

Tatum later attended Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis, Missouri. There he played small forward and quickly became one of the country’s most-touted high school basketball players. During his senior year (2015–16), Tatum averaged 29.5 points and 9.1 rebounds, and in the Missouri Class 5A state championship game he scored 40 points as Chaminade won the title. In 2015 Tatum was a member of the U.S. team that won the men’s basketball under-19 world championship. The following year Tatum was named the Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year and a McDonald’s All-American. He graduated from Chaminade as the school’s all-time scorer (2,676) and rebounder (1,028).

Tatum was heavily recruited by colleges, and he chose Duke University. During his freshman year in 2016–17, he averaged 16.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.1 assists. He helped the team win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, but Duke was upset in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Tatum subsequently announced that he was entering the 2017 NBA draft. The Celtics selected him with the third pick.

NBA: Boston Celtics

Tatum, who is 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 meters) tall, made his NBA debut on October 17, 2017, as a 19-year-old, scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Tatum was named the December Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month, averaging 14.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. In addition, he shot 52.9 percent from the field and 45.1 percent from the three-point range. His coach, Brad Stevens, predicted great things for the young player, saying, “He’s going to be able to shoot it deeper, and he’s going to be able to make it off running once he gets a little bit stronger, more used to it, and everything else. He’s going to be a heck of a shooter.” Tatum finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting, behind Ben Simmons and Donovan Mitchell.

Tatum was the Celtics’ leading scorer in the 2017–18 playoffs, and he became the first rookie since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to score 20-plus points in 10 postseason games. The Celtics made it to the Eastern Conference finals, where they lost to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games. James—considered by some as the greatest player of all time—sought out Tatum after the game, more than 10 years after an awestruck eight-year-old Tatum had met the superstar. “I just love everything about the kid: the way he plays the game, his demeanor, where he comes from,” James later said. “I just know he’s just built for stardom. He’s built for success. And that’s both on and off the floor.”

Tatum, who averaged 13.9 points per game as a rookie, increased his scoring average in subsequent years. In his third season (2019–20), he broke 20 points per game for the first time, averaging 23.4 points, and then averaged 26.4 points the following season. That was capped by a 60-point performance in a 2021 game against the San Antonio Spurs, tying a Celtics record set by Larry Bird. Tatum shot 20 for 37 from the field and scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, helping Boston rally from a 32-point deficit. Also in 2021 Tatum was a member of the U.S. men’s basketball team that won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics (scheduled for 2020, the Olympics were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

In the 2021–22 season the Celtics made it to the NBA finals for the first time in Tatum’s career. The team’s path to the championship series included a thrilling Eastern Conference finals win against the Miami Heat. In the decisive seventh game Tatum scored 26 points and had 10 rebounds and 6 assists, which helped him win the inaugural Larry Bird Eastern Conference finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Tatum also did an impressive job shutting down Miami star Jimmy Butler. “He does everything,” Butler said after the game. “Shooting the ball, playing the pick-and-roll, he passes the ball incredibly well, gets out in transition.” But Tatum fared poorly in a six-game series loss to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA finals, shooting just 36.7 percent from the field and making 23 turnovers. He also set a postseason record with 100 total turnovers.

The following season (2022–23), Tatum finished fourth in the MVP voting, averaging 30.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. In the playoffs he led the Celtics to victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, scoring 51 points in a decisive seventh-game rout, 112–88. But the Celtics lost a rematch of the Eastern Conference finals to the Heat. Tatum rolled his ankle at the beginning of the seventh game and said afterward that he was a “shell of myself” following the injury. Tatum was limited to just 14 points.