Celtics fans get the Jayson Tatum update they've been waiting 10 months for

Boston Celtics fans just got the news they’ve spent the past 10 months waiting for. Jayson Tatum is expected to make his season debut on Friday against the Dallas Mavericks, after missing the team’s first 62 games working his way back from a ruptured Achilles, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.

Charania's reports came moments after the Celtics officially listed Tatum as questionable to play against Dallas on Thursday's injury report. It was the first time all season that he'd been listed as anything besides "OUT."

Achilles injuries are no joke, historically. It typically takes NBA players over 10 months to return to play, and sometimes multiple seasons to return to peak performance.

Other than the obvious, “he’s back,” piece of this, fans can feel confident that Tatum is feeling beyond “good enough.” Just about everyone from the organization who’s spoken about his rehab into a microphone has made it clear that Tatum’s full recovery took precedence over any other factors in the decision to bring him back. 

"It's best for Jayson to come when he's 110% healthy, he's fully cleared by everybody that matters in that decision, and he's got great peace of mind and ready to do it," Brad Stevens told reporters last month at the Auerbach Center. "That's it. That's the objective, and that's what we're going to stick with."

Even at that point, Tatum had come a long way since he sustained the injury against the New York Knicks in Game 4 of last year’s second-round playoff series. Reports of the Celtics star taking part in five-on-five workouts have trickled out consistently over the past month or so.

“Jayson Tatum has been doing 5 on 5 for a period of weeks now,” Charania said a few weeks back during an appearance on the Throwbacks podcast. “These are the steps you take as you ramp up. At the end of the day only he can be the one that gives the final clearance. About a dozen people involved here at the end. Doctors, his side, Celtics officials, are eventually gonna gather in a room and be like ‘ok, we’re good. Let’s move forward.”

All first-hand accounts on Tatum's recovery had been positive

As this day has grown closer, the first-hand accounts from people who have seen JT workout sure make it sound like he’s looking and feeling like himself.

“He looks good,” Derrick White told reporters in the locker room after Wednesday’s 118-89 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. “Playing, moving. It's been good to see him back and getting up and down. You kind of see all the work he's put in to get to this point. And it's been great to see him be able to do what he loves to do.”

Even earlier accounts from the likes of former Celtic Xavier Tillman Sr., who was dealt to Charlotte last month, and Ron Harper Jr., who took part in the famed Maine Celtics practice with Tatum last month, made it sound like everything was going smoothly.

"It was pretty constant, he was here like six days a week, getting it in and always doing something to better his body," Tillman Sr. said of Tatum’s rehab work on Wednesday. “...But as far as his rehab goes, I mean, towards before I got traded, he was looking pretty well for sure."

“[Tatum] looked great,” Harper Jr. shared during his All-Star weekend media availability (via CLNS Media). “And I'm sure he's going to keep progressing in his rehab. Whatever that looks like, time will tell. But yeah, he's looking good."

Friday's matchup with the Mavs enables Tatum to deliver on a few preseason promises.

First, during his preseason media tour, the 28-year-old was adament that he wasn't ruling out a return to action in the 2025-26 campaign -- something many had written off shortly after his intial injury.

Second, it's a home game. JT made it clear before the season that if he were to return, he wanted to do it in front of the TD Garden crowd. The outpouring and love and passion from the Celtics faithful as No. 0 steps back onto the parquet will undoubtedly be the source of goosebumps fopr just about everyone involved.