(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Jayson Tatum has been one of the NBA’s best players over the last few years, and now he will get another shot at winning his first world championship when his Boston Celtics start the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday.
The Celtics have breezed through the first three rounds of the playoffs with just two losses, and Tatum has led the way by averaging 26.0 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 5.9 assists in 14 postseason games.
This has made him just one of a handful of players to average 25 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists per contest in the playoffs en route to the Finals, per NBA on ESPN.
Jayson Tatum’s play before the #NBAFinals has put him in ELITE company pic.twitter.com/bJsCRP6vsF
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) June 6, 2024
Tatum joins Celtics legend Larry Bird, who accomplished the feat twice, and he will now look to join Bird in another category — the one that matters most.
Bird led the Celtics to three championships in the 1980s and has a legacy as one of basketball’s greatest clutch players ever, and for Tatum to be considered a true franchise great, he will have to win the grand prize himself.
Thus far, he hasn’t done well on the big stage.
Two years ago, Boston reached the championship series, but Tatum averaged 21.5 points a game on just 36.7 percent field-goal shooting as his team lost in six games to the Golden State Warriors.
Last year, Boston overcame a 3-0 deficit in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat to force a Game 7 at home, but just when it seemed everything was going their way, Tatum mustered just 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting in a blowout loss.
This year’s NBA Finals could very well determine which direction Tatum’s legacy will permanently head in.
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