Jayson Tatum has pretty much accomplished it all in his NBA career. He already has an NBA championship, two Olympic gold medals and six All-Star appearances under his belt at the age of 26.
Despite everything he’s done on the hardwood, Tatum is still not satisfied. The former All-ACC forward from Duke still has more goals he wants to achieve on the hardwood, make no mistake about it. But he also wants the narrative surrounding him to change.
During an interview with Michael Lee of The Washington Post, Tatum admit that he doesn’t feel appreciated by NBA fans.
“If you took the name and the face away from all my accomplishments and you’re just like, ‘This is what this Player A accomplished at 26,’ people would talk about [me] a lot differently,” Tatum said. “I don’t really want to insert myself in things that can be debated. Did he win a championship? Yes. Did he win gold medals? Yes. Was he always a part of winning seasons? Was he first-team all-NBA? Those are things that you know are hard evidence. Yes or no. Face of the NBA? They can always debate. But it’s like, I check off all the boxes.”
It didn’t take long for NBA fans to fire back at Tatum.
Fans claim they’re not fond of Tatum because he’s constantly seeking their approval instead of just going about his business.
“The difference between Tatum and the greats like MJ, LeBron, KD and Kobe is they didn’t care what people thought of them,” one fan replied. “They never cried about how people don’t like them. That’s why Tatum will never reach their level.”
“This response is exactly why people look at him the way they do,” another fan said.
“Brother you have a 300 million dollar contract and NBA championship,” a third fan tweeted. “Who gives a [expletive]?”
“I think what Tatum fails to realize is there’s no story. He’s not interesting, he doesn’t give personality, his game isn’t entertaining…. He’s Tim Duncan as a wing,” a fourth fan commented.
Tatum is having an MVP-caliber season with the Celtics, averaging 26.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Even if he wins the award, there’ll probably still be some lingering beef between him and the fans.
At the end of the day though, Tatum has definitely solidified a spot in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
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