Jayson Tatum reveals why he decided to return this season rather than chase perfection

BOSTON — For months, whether Jayson Tatum was going to return to the court was one of the biggest questions in basketball.

We saw glimpses of his on-court workouts and heard nothing but positive things about how he looked to his teammates, but the door was left open — and discourse intensified — when he went on the Pivot Podcast in January and expressed reluctance about whether he should come back.

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Tatum pointed to the Celtics’ success without him — they held the Eastern Conference’s second seed for most of the year — and candidly reflected on the fact that a return wouldn’t be seamless.

“There is a thought in my head, like, how does that work? Or how does that look with me integrating myself off the injury … 50, 60 games into a season? There obviously could be some challenges. And it is a thought: Do I come back? Should I wait? It’s something that I honestly, recently, in the last two weeks or so just kind of contemplate every single day.”

By now, we all know where Tatum landed: he ultimately decided to come back, less than 10 months after rupturing his Achilles. In three weeks since his return, he’s played in all but one game, averaging 19.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game.

Of late, the minutes restriction has seemingly lifted — Tatum logged 37 minutes on Friday night against the Hawks — and his rebounding has shown no drop-off.

Still, as he’s routinely told reporters, he’s rusty and still trying to regain his rhythm and flow on the court. Even his handle has felt off at times, an aspect of his game that is unrelated to his Achilles injury.

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Earlier this week, I penned a column about how I believed fans should think about Jayson Tatum’s return. Much of the discourse centered on his shooting woes rather than on his improbable on-court impact.

(Tatum is shooting 38.3% from the field and 30.3% from three in 10 games this season).

In effect, I concluded, that mere weeks after his debut, we had already lost sight of the big picture.

The big picture is this: Tatum tore his Achilles tendon last May and returned to the floor less than 10…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/jayson-tatum-reveals-why-decided-063946345.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-28 06:39:00

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