Tatum talks lofty new goals: ‘Everything sounds crazy until you do it’ |Max Sporty|

Tatum Talks About Big New Goals: ‘Everything Sounds Crazy Until You Do It’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

If Jayson Tatum is bothered by some summertime disrespect, it’s not evident at this point.

Tatum struts around an impromptu photo shoot inside the GBH building across the street from the Celtics’ practice facility in Brighton. He has the Larry O’Brien trophy slung in his right arm and a gold medal hanging from his neck. The mug he makes for the camera seems to be asking if his detractors are, in fact, the ones who are crazy.

See, Tatum isn’t worried about any Steves (Kerr, mostly). He’s not worried about any Richard (Jefferson, to be specific). No, the only thing that moves him right now is Larrys (and O’Brien and Bird).

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On this day, everyone seems to want to know how Tatum plans to respond to Kerr’s limited use of him during the Olympics. Jefferson will soon suggest that you can plug any Top 10 superstar into Tatum’s role (picking Donovan Mitchell in his example) and the Celtics would still thrive, which at least partially discredits Tatum’s two-way impact on the team’s title run.

In a summer that should be a coronation — with the four-time All-NBA wing winning a title and landing on the cover of NBA 2K25 — all the conversation around Tatum entering the new season is about whether he might find encouragement from his detractors. .

Tatum refuses to give those people any air. Well, except maybe his own coach, because Tatum playfully feigns excitement about how Joe Mazzulla is one of the few in these parts who actually. loves the very few things that haven’t turned Tatum’s way lately.

“Obviously, if you know Joe, you get where he’s coming from,” Tatum said. “Everybody else is like, ‘Man, keep your head up.’ And Joe was like, ‘No, I’m happy. It’s good for you. You were on top of the mountain. You got a new contract, 2K [cover]championship, and you go to the Olympics and it doesn’t go your way. How will you answer?’”

And here’s the question everyone keeps asking Tatum: How will you answer?

He smiles and becomes diplomatic when, near the end of his media assignments, he is asked what exactly his answer will be.

“It was good to get away from basketball a little bit, but I had a lot of fun last year with our group,” Tatum said. “I’ve been on teams where the cohesion isn’t that great. So when it’s special – and we had so much fun during the season last year, we made so many memories, and we accomplished something that will bond us together forever.

“I missed being around the coaches and the guys on the team. So I’m really happy to be back around.”

True, Tatum’s to-do list is already quite long, and tall. He doesn’t have time to deal with the details. After going over the highlights of his summer, he asked what other boxes were left to check.

“I got to check out MVP, Finals MVP, and pick up a few more championships,” Tatum said.

And Tatum knows he doesn’t reach the highest of his goals without getting better.

“There should be another level,” said Tatum “I’m only 26 years old. I’m going into Year 8 … The motivation is not, ‘Oh, he didn’t play that much in the Olympics – how will that feel. ?’ The thing that drives me is how Larry Bird is the best player ever to wear a Celtic uniform.

“That’s the guy, average 30 [points per game] that one season or having a 60-point game and tying his record, like sometimes it’s in the same conversation with him as far as records and things like that go. You should strive to be the best. He is the best Celtic of all time. And that’s what I’m after. Even if I fall short of that, a little bit, you’ve had a hell of a career. “

Sometimes it feels sacrilegious in these parts to suggest that any player could end his career in the same air as Bird. Larry Joe delivered three Larry O’Bs. He won three MVPs and added two Finals MVPs. Even with his impressive photo accessories, there is work to be done for Tatum to simply produce a similar inventory of accomplishments.

But chasing the greatest Celtics player is a better incentive than a few summer DNPs that will sooner rather than later be forgotten. So Tatum doesn’t worry about little blips, he’s focused on the bigger picture.

“It all sounds crazy until you do it,” Tatum said. “Someone has to do it. And not to say it’s easy or anything like that. But you should just try to be the best. And [Bird] was the best to ever wear this jersey.”

A lot of focus entering the season will fall on Tatum’s 3-point shot after he struggled beyond the arc in the postseason and then didn’t make a single perimeter shot in those limited Olympic minutes. But the road map to MVP goes beyond finding more consistency beyond the arc.

Tatum’s playmaking evolved last year, peaking in the Finals last year where he averaged double figures in potential assists. Given his rebounding talent, especially while Kristaps Porzingis is sidelined, Tatum should be a triple-double threat more often this season.

Last year, Tatum accepted a decline in calculating statistics in order for the Celtics to fully thrive. Even if some of his goals are focused on individual achievements, he always kept the priority on team success.

After all, winning is supposed to silence the critics. But they keep finding something. Tatum can’t help but hear the noise but he won’t let that be the only thing motivating him.

No, his goals are too big to sweat the small stuff.