Jayson Tatum is an NBA Champion. He helped the Boston Celtics lift their 18th banner in franchise history at the end of the 2023-24 season, but that’s not the story people like to focus on. Tatum has made three straight All-NBA First Teams and was the cover athlete of NBA 2K25 and Sports Illustrated. Yet more people care about his Team USA tenure at the 2024 Olympics.
The Celtics star was largely left out of the rotation during the Olympics. His jump shot has been off since the start of the playoffs, so he wasn’t in the best place to play an off-ball role as LeBron James and Stephen Curry took on most of the ball-handling.
Those two factors—his shooting slump and lack of Team USA court-time—have created a toxic, unnecessary, and closed-minded view of Tatum. And at its core, all of the discourse comes down to the fact that Tatum isn’t the type of superstar NBA fans want him to be.
NBA fans discredit Jayson Tatum because he plays team basketball and isn't the superstar they want him to be
Look at Anthony Edwards. Luka Doncic. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. They are three of the most popular players in the league, and they are all heliocentric players. Their teams’ entire offenses run through them. Oftentimes, wins and losses depend on their individual greatness. And at the end of the day, it’s hard to win that way at the highest level. Just look at James Harden.
Early in his career, Tatum played that way. At his core, he’s a score-first guy. But over the past few seasons, his game has evolved. He’s embracing more of a team game, and Brad Stevens has put an incredible team around him—another factor that people hold against him (even though it’s just good team-building).
Fans love flashy plays. They love highlight-reel dunks, ankle-breakers, and game-winning shots. This past season, Tatum didn’t have a lot of any of those. But he won games. His willingness to buy into team-first basketball helped the Celtics.
Tatum’s 2024 postseason run tied his fewest shot attempts per game in the last five years. He also took the second-fewest threes per game in that time frame. On the other hand, he averaged a career-high in assists per game and tied his lowest turnover-per-game mark of the last five seasons.
On top of his lack of heliocentric play, Tatum also doesn’t fall in the same charismatic category as the Doncics, Edwards, and Gilgeous-Alexanders of the world.
As Doncic talks trash on the court, Edwards lets his personality flow in the media, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s apparent aura keeps him in the spotlight, Tatum hangs out in the shadows.
He does brand deals, his jerseys sell, and he’ll let out an on-court scream every once in a while, but for the most part, the Celtics star is very reserved. Tatum plays basketball, hangs out with his son, Deuce, and keeps his media comments as plain as possible.
Fans want to see iso-ball. They want to see highlight plays. They want to hear trash talk, listen to funny social media clips, and watch a player take over a game by himself. And while Tatum is fully capable of that last point, it just never came in the playoffs last year. But that’s okay. Because he played winning basketball.
Tatum doesn’t get discredited because he’s bad at basketball. He gets discredited because he plays team basketball. And it won him a championship.