Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Sends Direct Message To Lingering Doubters

Jayson Tatum has been surrounded by a lot of skepticism in his Celtics tenure.

Once Tatum established himself as one of the NBA's best, doubters wondered if he could be a true No. 1 on a championship team. Those folks also weren't sure if Tatum and running mate Jaylen Brown would ever be able to truly co-exist.

Tatum put those skeptics in their place this season when Boston steamrolled through the regular season and kept the train moving in the playoffs. The C's only dropped three postseason games en route to the 18th championship in franchise history.

And yet, there still will be a group of people who aren't totally bought in on Tatum. That's fine, but they will have to be mindful of the undeniable fact Tatum floated Monday.

"There’s still a lot of things I guess they can debate, but I've done some things they can't debate," Tatum told reporters at Team USA camp in Las Vegas. "I won a championship. I did it at the highest level. So having that under my belt, like, obviously there's still conversations to be had or whatever people want to say, but they've always got to refer to me as an NBA champion."

Sports debates often are powered by opinion rather than fact, but Tatum haters might lose all leverage in the coming years. The Celtics have their core locked up for multiple seasons, which gives Boston a golden opportunity to hang more banners at TD Garden.

The effort to claim more hardware will continue next season when Tatum and company enter the 2024-25 campaign as prohibitive title favorites.