Brad Stevens Went On The Radio This Morning And Completely Shit All Over These "Anonymous Sources" That Love To Slander Jayson Tatum

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It's taken me some getting used to when it comes to Brad Stevens now doing the Danny Ainge weekly interview on Toucher & Rich. Back when it was Ainge, you always had to read in between the lines to figure out what he was truly saying. It was a fun game. With Brad, things are a little different. He's much more straight forward while also being good about not saying too much to the media. Ime on the other hand does the exact opposite but that's a different story for a different blog. 

If you'd like, you can hear his entire interview here

but I would like to focus on one portion in particular. He was asked about the ESPN report and all the slander it had in regards to Jayson Tatum, and he provided an interesting response

You know Brad wasn't messing around because threw out his patented "ridiculous" and "joke" lines. That may not seem like a big deal to most, but if you know Brad you know he was basically cursing. Now let's be clear about something here. Of course he's going to stick up for his franchise player. He's not going to go on the radio and be like "Yup! That article nailed it!", let's not getcrazy. But he's also someone that has a pretty good ide of who Tatum is both as a player and a person. Clearly more than an "anonymous" source who is just looking for a prime opportunity to slander Tatum. That stuff plays, it gets clicks, and that's why we saw it. Brad's response to that was pretty much what any logical person who isn't just looking to trash Jayson Tatum would think. 

If you're going to say shit like that, don't be a coward and put your name to it. If you can't do that, just shut up. Anyone who watches Tatum play knew how ridiculous those statements were, but like I said, when it comes to the media/social media, slander > reality. That's just how it works.

So many people try and make assumptions about what Tatum cares about. It's one of the strangest things going on right now. That he's a "me only" guy that cares about individual shit rather than team success. It's so bizarre because he's never said anything that suggests that. People point to him being annoyed about an All NBA snub. OK? What star player isn't? That shit messes with your money. Is the idea that you can't care about All NBA and winning at the same time? Or if you care about All NBA then you don't care about winning? Do you see how insane that is? When it comes to Tatum, his actions are the opposite. He doesn't even play that way! Here we have someone who is around him telling everyone how Tatum actually is and people will still ignore it because it's not as juicy and the slander. 

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I'm glad to see Brad fired up about this. He put his name to it and called out the bullshit. This is important for a few reasons. First, Tatum feels supported. It's honestly crazy that we're 20 games in and Brad has had to do this with both Jays, all based off bullshit media "reports". First it was the Jaylen for Ben Simmons shit from Shams and now this. Ainge may have let that stuff slide, but not Brad. Now that he's in charge he's going to publicly call out trash when he sees it. That's the kind of guy I want running my favorite franchise.