How Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Made NBA History By Not Winning Award

Jayson Tatum was tremendous for the Boston Celtics over the course of the NBA regular season’s home stretch.

Tatum was recognized for those efforts, as he took home not one, not two, but three (!) Eastern Conference Player of the Week awards during the month of March. But when it was time to hand out the final East Player of the Month award of the 2021-22 campaign, the NBA went in a different direction.

Giannis Antetokounmpo was the recipient of that hardware. Mind you, the Milwaukee Bucks superstar did not earn Player of the Week honors at any point in March or April. In losing out to the Greek Freak, Tatum became only the second player in league history to win three Player of the Week awards in the same month and not proceed to win the Player of the Month award in said month, per Celtics.com’s Taylor Snow.

Boston head coach Ime Udoka was perplexed by Tatum getting overlooked.

“Jayson not getting Player of the Month was odd to me,” Udoka told reporters Wednesday, per Snow.

We can’t imagine Tatum was very hung up about the omission. The three-time All-Star probably is putting the majority of his focus and concern on the Brooklyn Nets, who the Celtics will meet in the first round of the playoffs.