The Media's Reaction To The Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown Situation Following Their Matchup Has Truly Left Planet Earth
Mitchell Leff. Getty Images.Whether you're tired of the story/drama or not, the fact remains that the Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown storyline has been one of the bigger parts of the early NBA season.
To those of us who have been living with this shit every day since July, this isn't really that surprising. We knew this would be the case. With all the build up and all the drama, it shouldn't be all that surprising that everyone and their mother was tuned in to the first matchup of the season.
As we know, Jaylen iced out Tatum before the opening tip and then tried to lie about it postgame, Tatum responded by completely outplaying him on both ends of the floor and as a result the Celts went on to win on Philly's court by blowout. Honestly, nothing about that was really all that surprising either. It was clear Jaylen was in his own head a little bit and as a result his play suffered. That's a movie we've seen a few times before in these high leverage games.
The surprising part, at least to me, is the reaction following this meeting and the events that took place. You see, we all know Jayson Tatum Derangement Syndrome exists, but I think what this situation is showing us is that it may actually be worse than we thought. Just listen to some of the #takes from the basketball media coming out of that game and tell me that we are actually still on planet Earth
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Let's just think this through for a second. The player, who has very openly stated that there is no beef and he has no ill will towards someone, does what every NBA player in the world does before a game and gives a quick dap to every player. Then, the guy he's going up to puts on a performance of completely ignoring him (which he then lied about after the game).
Whenever I hear this take about that interaction, my question is this. What exactly did these people want Tatum to do?
1. If he goes out there and tries to act like he hates Jaylen and ignores him and never gives him any sort of dap/tap etc, he's called fake because he kept saying he has no ill feelings/beef etc.
2. If he continues to be the bigger person and acts in a way that shows he has no ill will or beef, that's supposedly performative.
SO WHAT EXACTLY SHOULD HE BE DOING IN THAT SITUATION?
How is it that HE is the one painted as the fake or bad guy there? How does that make any sense?
Don't worry, there's more
This one truly broke my brain. So it's better off for Jaylen Brown's career to play with a worse player, worse passer, and worse defender?
Jayson Tatum might be the most versatile player in the entire league. If you play with Jayson Tatum, he makes your life MUCH easier. He makes you a better basketball player. He gets you paid. We know this, because those of us who do not suffer from Jayson Tatum Derangement Syndrome have eyes. How many players have taken a leap playing next to Tatum, including Jaylen Brown? How many have gone on to get paid as a result of sharing the floor with Jayson Tatum? Just look at what is currently happening with Paul George for crying out loud!
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This isn't to take anything away from Tyrese Maxey. He's awesome. But what he is not, is Jayson Tatum. He does not impact the game to the level of a perennial 1st Team All NBA player. We're talking about the best passing wing since LeBron fucking James! Just an insane thing to say.
Don't worry, we're still not done. Up next, is perhaps the craziest take of all from Sixers sideline reporter Tom Haberstroh
I'm sorry, where exactly is all this "Tatum PR"???? In reality, Jayson Tatum has arguably the worst PR of any superstar currently in the NBA! Look at how he's currently being discussed! ESPN literally cums themselves to the moon while slandering him. And if we're just talking about this situation specifically, it's actually the exact opposite of what is being suggested in that clip!
Who do we think was the source of the big ESPN article that came out ahead of their matchup?
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In what world has Jayson Tatum ever had good PR? Even in his local market, the media has been killing Tatum for his pregame interaction. Why?
Here's what I truly believe is happening here.
All of these people (Boston media included) desperately wanted Jaylen Brown to win that matchup. They wanted their fan fiction to become reality. Then once that didn't happen, they had to pivot to this shit. Notice how this is the narrative being talked about that game? Notice how Tatum is still being framed as "fake" "performative" etc when he did nothing but act like a professional and then went out and backed everything up? How does that make any goddamn sense.
This is because these people didn't get what they wanted. They wanted more opportunities to shit all over Tatum, blame him for the trade and show why it was wrong. They wanted their takes from before the matchup to be true. Remember, this was billed as the revenge opportunity for Jaylen, he was going to show why he's the "alpha" and why Tatum isn't blah blah blah. Of course, that did not happen and those takes aged like milk. I'm sure that was probably embarrassing for those who said those things, so this is how they try and spinzone what happened. I'm not sure how else you could read these reactions.
It's all just so fucking weird. I feel like I'm being gaslit or something. At the end of the day, it all just continues to show just how weird all these media people are when it comes to Jayson Tatum. He quite literally cannot even exist without stuff like this happening, it's fascinating. No matter what he chooses to do, it doesn't matter. No matter how he plays on the court, it doesn't matter. Meanwhile, the exact opposite happens to Jaylen from these very same people.
So tell me again, who has the good PR?