Jayson Tatum pretty much single-handedly put the Atlanta Hawks to bed Thursday night, taking over in the fourth quarter and willing the Boston Celtics to a first-round series win.
The 24-year-old obviously had the motivation to end the series, but it might not have come from where you would think.
No, we’re not talking about preventing the Philadelphia 76ers from building up some extra rest. We’re not even talking about a desire to bounce back from what was admittedly an ugly collapse in Game 5. We’re talking about Janet Jackson.
“I want to send an apology to the legend Janet Jackson,” Tatum said just minutes after the Game 6 win, per TNT. “We were supposed to close it out in Boston. She had to postpone her show. I hope she sees this. I apologize for that, but we got it done today.”
In case you’ve been living under a rock, it became pretty big news that Jackson was forced to postpone her show that was scheduled for Thursday night at State Farm Arena. Instead of having the Celtics close things out to open up a performance from the pop legend, the Hawks held on to add another game to the series and leave her with a logistical nightmare. Tatum, being the nice young man he is, put together a 30-point, 14-rebound, seven-assist, one-steal, two-block performance to ensure that State Farm Arena would be open for business this summer.
How thoughtful.
