After preventing Jayson Tatum from winning his first NBA championship, Draymond Green gave the Celtics star advice on how to get back to basketball’s promised land.
Tatum and Green maintain a close friendship, one that withstood the tensions that surfaced over the course of the 2022 NBA Finals between Boston and Golden State. In fact, the Warriors star reached out to Tatum after Golden State won another championship back in June, knowing the 24-year-old could benefit from a check-in after falling just short of the ultimate goal.
As Boston’s franchise cornerstone explained to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Green never gloated about the Warriors’ Finals win during the offseason conversation. The two talked about life, and the four-time champion offered some words of wisdom to the MVP hopeful.
“He was like, ‘Man, what people don’t realize is you get to the Finals and you play longer than anybody else and then you lose and you don’t have s— to celebrate,'” Tatum told Shelburne.
“And he was really emphasizing that in the beginning of the training camp that we can’t just think we are going to get back there. It’s going to be different. We have to start all the way over. Everybody got to be committed. Everybody got to be ready because it’s not going to be easy. It’s not a guarantee that we get back.”
Tatum clearly bought into Green’s message and his Celtics teammates followed suit. Boston entered Christmas Day with the league’s best record and appears as motivated as ever to stage another deep playoff run.
