Since entering the league at age 19, there has never been much doubt about Jayson Tatum’s ability as a basketball player. But there have been cases where his ability to take over as the leader of a franchise has come into question. It really has never had anything to do with what he has said or done, but rather that he just comes off as more of a quiet, stoic, and reserved guy, rather than an exuberant, ‘rah-rah’ kind of traditional leader.
Besides that, even as he quickly rose to become the best player on the Celtics, the franchise was always stacked with veteran leaders, from Marcus Smart to Al Horford to Jrue Holiday and so on and so forth. But now, JT has been in the league for 10 years, and all of his contemporaries are gone.
It's time for JT to lead
With Jaylen Brown being traded to the 76ers, it has never been clearer that this is Tatum’s team, and it’s time for him to step up and be a leader. And if this offseason is any sign, that’s a role he’s absolutely ready for. It started with him getting the team together to work out in LA and build chemistry, and he further discussed it at media day on Monday, when he was asked how he feels about taking on a bigger leadership role.
“Very comfortable. This is year 10, so, you know, obviously I’ve just kind of been through it all. Leadership is about a lot of different things; awareness is the biggest one. Self-awareness, awareness of the group, and just understanding that we all have roles and we’re in this together.”
This is what Celtics fans have been dying to hear for years, and what the team now desperately needs from their superstar. Perhaps, in a way, it’s unfair to Tatum to say that he hasn’t been more of a leader. Again, there have always been proven vets with loud voices in the locker room.
But maybe he just needed to grow himself, to become a veteran, and to get some of those guys out of his way. Now, like it or not, the path has been paved, and the lane has been cleared. We’ve heard the rhetoric from Paul George and others about how JT is the superstar and everyone else is there to complement him, and that’s a shift from where the narrative has been in years past.
Celtics are now definitively Jayson Tatum's team
It has always been about the Jays and the team as a whole. More than ever, it feels like it’s about Tatum and everyone else now, and it sounds like he is embracing that head-on. And he’s absolutely right; he has been through it all now.
He has faced the highs of leading the Celtics to a championship as well as the lows of tearing his Achilles, and just about everything in between. He has had the luxury of being around other great players and great leaders, and now it’s time for him to come into his own in that regard.
There are other great vets around him like Derrick White, PG, and Mike Conley, and there are great voices on the bench like Joe Mazzulla and Sam Cassell. But at a certain point, your franchise player has to take over and lead the team, and Jayson Tatum appears to be ready for that challenge and the next step of his career.
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