Jayson Tatum Is Now An All Star Starter (Again) And The Haters And Losers Of Which There Are Many Can Go Cry About It
Maddie Malhotra. Getty Images.
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And just like that, Jayson Tatum has become the first player in Boston Celtics history to be named an All Star starter twice by the age of 23. Do I care that this only happened because Kevin Durant was injured both years and Tatum made it into the starting five as a replacement?
Nope! Sure as shit don't! Starter is a starter last time I checked. It just goes to show that maybe all those takes and reports of Jayson Tatum's demise to start the year were maybe a little premature. It's almost like nobody has ever seen a Jayson Tatum season before. It's a popular meme among Celtics Twitter, but it's also the truth. When you think of Tatum as a player, he basically follows this template
Now compare that to his current season, ya know, where everyone was losing their mind during the first month
Should it come as a surprise that Tatum is playing some of his best basketball at the same time that the Celts are suddenly one of the hottest teams in the NBA? I say no. Those two things feel related. Suddenly he's not shooting like 20% from the floor and the Celts are actually winning games. A wild concept when you think about it.
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Another reason I love this is because of how mad it's going to make people. That shit feeds my soul. I'm sure you could click away from this blog and go on Twitter and see it in real time.
"wahhhh Tatum is overrated"
"wahhh this is bullshit, MY favorite player should have made it instead"
"wahh the Celtics suck wahhhhh"
Inject that shit right into my veins. I'm sorry Tatum is putting up 25.6/8.4/4.1 this season and was 4th in voting so he got the nod. I'm sorry if that upsets you.
I'd say this was a surprise, but pretty much everyone should have known this was coming. As soon as KD said he was out and we saw the voting results, this was mostly just a formality. I will say, the more interesting news came with the All Star replacements in both conferences
Now this is awesome. Dejounte Murray was pretty much a universal snub in the West, and with Draymond out, I can't think of another player more deserving. In the East, it wasn't as clear cut. You could make the case that someone like Jarrett Allen should have gotten that replacement spot given how good the Cavs are this year, but at the same time, the Hornets didn't have a single All Star despite their decent year. Plus LaMelo is having a great season and osawesome to watch. He was essentially born to play in an All Star game. It's about entertainment at the end of the day and I am already giddy with anticipation to see some of the shit he's going to try in this game. Nobody plays up to the crowd like LaMelo while also having insane talent.
Am I bummed someone like Jaylen got snubbed? Not really. Celts don't deserve to have two All Stars, plus I'd much rather get a motivated Jaylen for the stretch run of the season. Now the focus needs to shift to the more important topic. Who is Brad going to have Tatum recruit? Every year there's an assignment, at least that was the case during the Danny Ainge era. It'll be interesting to see how things go under the Brad Stevens Era. Everyone tampers at All Star Weekend, you can't be the one team/player that doesn't.