Speaking to ESPN‘s Sage Steele, Boston Celtics second-year forward Jayson Tatum would address the trade speculation surrounding the team, rumors that he wouldn’t mind playing for the New Orleans Pelicans and the Celtics’ roller coaster season.
One of Boston’s most talented players, Tatum has become a focal point of a team that’s seen as a legitimate championship-contender.
It’s not a position that many players in their second season, or at 20-years-old, are put in. More typical is for a young, potential cornerstone player like Tatum to be traded to another team. Kristaps Porzingis (New York Knicks to the Dallas Mavericks), Andrew Wiggins (Cleveland Cavaliers to the Minnesota Timberwolves) and James Harden (Oklahoma City Thunder to the Houston Rockets) are players currently in the league who experienced such fates.
Yet, when rumors started to creep into the players’ attention — like the ones about him and the Pelicans — it’s still a reality that players have to learn how to cope with.
“You start to understand this is a business,” said Tatum. “I play basketball and I just gotta control what I can control.”
So he controlled what he can control.
As far as where Tatum wants to play, the 20-year-old was very clear about his intentions, saying “I love being on the Celtics. I wanna play there my whole career.”
A sentence often uttered by players who have developed an affinity for their the lore of their franchise history, their teammates and the community, Tatum could always change his mind but he certainly wouldn’t be the first star player to spend their entire career with one team nor would he be the first to do so in Celtics history.
He would be following in the footsteps of Larry Bird and Bill Russell. Even in the footsteps of his idol Kobe Bryant.
Tatum has the chance to be, not just the face of the franchise, but one of the faces of the league by the time he reaches his prime.
Should Boston continue to be at least a playoff-contender in the coming years and Tatum remain on the team past the Anthony Davis saga, it’ll be hard to imagine him in any other uniform.
