Jayson Tatum prodded by The Ringer to be the Boston Celtics' Kobe Bryant

The Ringer's Danny Chau wants to see Jayson Tatum embody his childhood hero, Kobe Bryant, and have a heroic performance for the Boston Celtics during the postseason after going seven games without a 30-point performance in the team's Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series (4-1) against the Miami Heat and Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"The Celtics can’t bore themselves into a championship," Chau prefaced before saying, "Not in this brave new era. Fair or not, the burden rests on Tatum’s shoulders to make good on that childhood dream of his—not only be like Kobe, but to be him. No one was better at magnifying himself in defining moments. We’re still waiting for Tatum to stake his claim."

Tatum has referred to Kobe as his favorite player growing up and has even boldly admitted that Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers were his favorite teams growing up.

"My favorite team were the Lakers. Kobe Bryant was the reason I started playing basketball. He always was and will be my favorite player of all time," Tatum said (h/t Sporting News).

"I love the way he could get his shot off. His footwork in the mid-post. His determination to be the best player. He had an incredible work ethic, an incredible drive and just his killer mentality that he had."

Jayson Tatum must lift Boston Celtics over every hurdle -- including Kristaps Porzingis's injury

Most Celtics fans will be okay if Boston gets past every playoff foe through a committee approach. Only national analysts are going to harp on the Tatum conversation if No. 0 isn't the one to lead the Cs to glory.

But rest assured, the national talking heads will absolutely not stop harassing Tatum if he can't be the team's clear-cut alpha. And these players are cognizant of what is being said about them, so on some level, it's something Tatum will need to face.

For the chatter to stop, Tatum needs to help hurdle any challenges the Celtics have ahead of them, and in their second-round against the Cavs, and potentially the Eastern Conference Finals too, that means powering past Kristaps Porzingis's injury.

That'd be Tatum's version of Kobe overcoming Andrew Bynum's never-ending stream of injuries for the late-2000s era Lakers.