Shit, I’ll even take preseason games at this point.
The wait has been long enough.
Bird, Russell, Paul Pierce and those guys.
They paved the way.
The one thing all those guys have is chips.
I have to get to the top of the mountain to even be considered as one of those guys.
Be still my heart.
It’s the fact that heknowsnone of that is possible without the title.
This isn’t any other franchise in the league.
This is the Boston Celtics.
The simple question of “did he win a title?”
is the baseline for greatness.
The fact that Tatum knows and understands this has me ready to run through a brick wall.
I am for sure going to miss Smart, Tatum says.
He was my teammate for six years and weve been through it all.
We had good moments together, we had bad moments together.
Hes somebody that I wish was going be my teammate forever.
Why am I crying in the club right now?
You get the sense that Tatum feels the same way
We talk about it all the time.
We are due to get over the hump, Tatum says, relaying his conversations with Brown.
And its going to be well worth it when we do.
My entire existence depends on it.
These last two seasons have been exactly that and you would think eventually they break through.
But the NBA is a tricky sonofabitch.
Progress is not linear.
I think on some level that’s what makes me so sad about Smart being gone.
You never know what can happen, but I love playing for the Celtics, he says.
I figured out my space in the city and have grown to really enjoy it.
I love the fans.
It would be really hard to leave this place.
It’s impossible to say someone will be a Celtic for life.
But as far as I’m concerned that’s a future Greenie problem when it comes to Jayson Tatum.
For now and for the immediate future following his pending supermax, Jayson Tatum is all in.
Both on this city and this franchise.
you could’t ask for anything more than that.
This is what I mean about the pandering primer.
That’s some Grade A stuff and you bet your ass I ate every last bit of it up.
Why wouldn’t it?
It’s what I pray for every night before I fall asleep.
2022 was about getting over the ECF hump.
2023 was about winning the whole thing, which they obviously failed to do.
A great year all undone by an inability to win on their own floor when it mattered most.
Well now the pressure has gone up.
They are one of the few teams that have legit title or bust expectations.
The thing is, they also enter 2023-24 with just as many questions as answers.
You could make the case they have a higher ceiling, but a lower floor.
But as he said, it’s time to finally break through
