The talking heads had all the Jayson Tatum takes Wednesday morning.
Tatum on Tuesday dropped 50 points in the Boston Celtics’ play-in tournament victory over the Washington Wizards. The epic performance drew praise from Shannon Sharpe and, unsurprisingly, hate from Nick Wright. Because that’s just how things go on FS1.
And then there was ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who lauded Tatum during Wednesday morning’s “First Take” episode.
“I gotta give praise to Jayson Tatum, who put the world on notice and just reminded everybody the brother’s only 22,” Smith said. “He dropping 50, he averaging 26 a game as the No. 1 option for the Boston Celtics. … That dude is 22 years old. That’s the dude that (former Philadelphia 76ers general manager) Bryan Colangelo got hosed by Danny Ainge over when the Sixers had the No. 3 overall pick and wanted to move up to No. 1 so badly to pass on Jayson Tatum and pick Markelle Fultz instead. This is what we’re talking about here.
“Just imagine for one second if Jayson Tatum was playing with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. … They’re winning it all. That’s how gifted this kid is.”
We’d still pick the Brooklyn Nets. Maybe even the Los Angeles Lakers. But anyway.
Tatum and the Celtics will look to shock the basketball world when they play the Nets in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Game 1 is scheduled for Saturday night in Brooklyn.
