Jayson Tatum reveals he didn’t want to join Celtics on draft night

The location felt right as Jayson Tatum made Celtics history on Saturday night against the Nets. Tatum, who is currently in his seventh season in the NBA, began his career when the Celtics selected him third overall at the 2017 NBA Draft held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

Tatum became the youngest player in Celtics history to reach 10,000 points more than six years later. As the face of the team and its best player, he led the C’s with 32 points in their 124-114 victory over the Nets on Saturday. Although the 25-year-old has come a long way, he also acknowledged that he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to play with the C’s on that important night.

According to Tatum, via NBC Sports Boston, “I didn’t even want to come (to Boston) because I didn’t think I was going to play.” “They had Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas, Gordon Hayward, and Jaylen Brown.” I didn’t believe I was capable of playing for that team. I therefore didn’t even consider that I would end the game or finish. Getting into the game was more important to me than getting started.

Now, to be fair to Tatum, guys taken that high in the lottery don’t get opportunities like him often. Rebuilding teams are usually drafting blue-chip prospects like Tatum. But the Celtics held the Nets’ draft pick from that huge Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett trade. Originally, they had the first overall pick, only for then-president Danny Ainge to trade down to the third pick to take their guy in Tatum.

As Tatum pointed out, the Celtics were already plenty successful when he joined the team. They were coming off a 53-29 record, the best mark in the East, as they made it to the conference finals. Tatum himself had no trouble seeing the court in his rookie season, starting all 80 games and averaging 30.5 minutes.

Since then, Tatum’s improved on his numbers every season. He’s coming off back-to-back first-team All-NBA selections and is regarded as one of the best players in the league. So it all worked out for Tatum and the Celtics.

“Things happen for a reason and I got my opportunity,” Tatum said. “It’s been a long process. I’ve had to learn through the ups and downs through my mistakes of late-game decisions or whatever it may be. Just growing pains. Play in enough games, being in a lot of playoff series, you learn.”