Jayson Tatum reached superstar status as the Boston Celtics two-way standout was named First Team All-NBA on Tuesday evening.
Tatum explained he found out about the honor similar to all Celtics fans, scrolling on his phone before countless teammates and players around the league reached out to offer their congratulations.
“It’s a huge honor. I’m grateful for that recognition,” Tatum said during a video conference before Boston took the floor for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat.
Tatum was not named to any of the three teams for the 2020-21 season after being named Third Team All-NBA for the 2019-20 campaign. The Celtics star being left off the list was a bit controversial last season while his most recent selection comes as Boston players — Marcus Smart, Robert Williams — have been honored individually because of the team’s success.
“We won more games than last year,” Tatum said when asked what he believed allowed him to be selected. “But I think playmaking, just being able to read the game a lot better. It slowed down for me in a lot of ways, and I think it’s shown with my playmaking abilities, kind of running the offense at times and things like that.”
With Tatum not being selected to any of the three teams last season, it impacted his finances. Tatum, with the league’s supermax contract helping players who are named All-NBA, missed out on some $30 million. Instead, Tatum signed a five-year, $163 million contract with Celtics.
“What’s the saying, a day late and a dollar short?,” Tatum responded with a smirk. “Last year was last year, can’t change it. I’m just, obviously, I’m thankful. First-team All-NBA, that’s a big deal. I’m grateful for that recognition.”
Tatum said that while the finances didn’t cause any extra incentive this season, the fact he was left off last year’s list did serve as some motivation.
“Yeah, it wasn’t really incentivized for me with the money and all that. It was more just kind of felt disrespected,” Tatum said. “And I’ve talked about this quite a bit, just on the criteria and how the vote is. It’s just so wide open, right? And there’s no really set rules on who should qualify and I think that was the frustrating part. But it happened. Do I think I was one of the best 15 players last year? 1,000%. But you know, that’s behind me now and I made it this year. Now we’re trying to win a championship.”
Tatum has spoken publicly on previous podcasts, as well as with the media, about his frustrations with the voting process. And while that wasn’t a problem this year — he was included on one of three teams by every voter — he remains steadfast in the belief that the voting process needs to have some guidelines rather than a media free-for-all.
“There just should be some rules in place, I think. I don’t know exactly the number, but maybe you should have to play a certain amount of games, or maybe you are a playoff team or not,” Tatum said. “I do think it probably should be position-less. Joel Embiid was second in MVP voting and (named Second Team All-NBA) doesn’t really make too much sense, right? I think it should just be like the 15 best players. And obviously, with, you know, some guys in their contract years, supermax deals involved, that’s tough. And I’m sure that’s tough on the voters as well. So I think there’s a lot that could be changed in that in that area.”
Tatum finished the regular season with career highs in points (26.9), rebounds (8.0) and assists (4.4).
Tatum and the Celtics now have bigger aspirations as Boston is a real contender not only to reach the NBA Finals but win the organization’s first championship in more than a decade. That road will continue Wednesday as the Celtics, a two-point road favorite, take on the Heat in Miami for a pivotal Game 5.
