Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum made it loud and clear to the media that his team does not lack "toughness," providing his perspective on what that identity means to him and how it's being portrayed incorrectly by the organization that picked him No. 3 overall in the NBA Draft back in 2017.
"No, I think the world we live in, it's gotta be something wrong with every team," Tatum told the media Wednesday night (h/t Sports Illustrated). "That's what they like to say. You can see how talented we are. I think it's lazy, or easy, to say that teams can out-tough us, right? I never understood that. What's the definition of tough? Having louder guys on your team? That s--- don't make you tough. Everybody has their own definition of what toughness is. It's playing the right way, showing up every day to do your job without complaining. I think that's being tough."
In this day and age of basketball, there are many ways for the media to sway one team's persona. However, Tatum shared his thoughts and conveyed that his team is strong, no matter what others think; something easily proven by the blowout victories amidst clinching a trip to the second round and his discipline to not fight back during Game 1's incident with Caleb Martin.
Even though the Heat were fighting shorthanded due to a Jimmy Butler injury, there's no discrediting the way Boston performed throughout the five games.
Boston Celtics await Magic or Cavs in second round of NBA playoffs
Joe Mazzula and his team will take on either the Orlando Magic or the Cleveland Cavaliers in their next matchup. The big man, Kristaps Porzingis, is sidelined with a soleus injury, meaning that the Celtics will have to play without their stretch big, who was lighting it up from three-point land.
This serves as a great opportunity to show how much grit and toughness Jayson Tatum's team has, as a way to put all of the storylines to rest.