You don’t have to win an NBA title to know how hard it is to accomplish. Just ask star Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, who got to the mountaintop with the Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals, but ultimately came up short against the more experienced and disciplined Golden State Warriors.
And it isn’t just skill, focus, and having been there before, either — a fair amount of luck is baked in as well. Injuries are almost certain to happen over the course of four, highly-intense seven-game series, so the question then becomes how important the player hurt is to the team’s title hopes, whether there’s enough depth to make up for that — and how long that injury might have them out.
The St. Louis native recently weighed in on the grueling ride that is the pursuit of a title on a recent episode of the “Point Forward” podcast, revealing how much he’s learned about what goes into winning it all.
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“I already had a lot of respect for the Warriors, their traditions, everybody on the team, staff and everybody,” said Tatum.
“It just went so much higher after we played (them) in the finals, because that was my first time getting past the conference finals. First time we went to the finals, and we beat the Brooklyn Nets, we sweep them in four. But every game was less than eight points (difference). We go toe-to-toe Giannis (Antentokounmpo), we went to seven, we beat the (Miami) Heat in seven.”
“We had a hard row to get to the finals,” the Duke alum emphasized.
Former Celtic Jeff Teague says he warned Jayson Tatum about Tyrese Halliburton https://t.co/Xi7BPQYj9P pic.twitter.com/uTdeDYPQAd
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 10, 2023
“(The Warriors) beat us — they were the better team,” continued Tatum. “We didn’t play well enough to win.”
“But it made me realize like how hard you have to work to get there. And how much harder and tougher and more together and smarter you have to be to win — I didn’t realize. Obviously you can say it was hard to win a championship, but a lot of people don’t know. Only so many people have won, only so many people have gotten to the championship.”
“You realize, ‘Oh, what they have been able to do is special,’ and you just have got to tip your hat — they beat us,” added the Celtics star.
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 10, 2023
“And for them to do that four times … there’s a reason — it’s not luck — there’s a reason why (Golden State won) and it makes you go back to the drawing board,” explained Tatum.
“I’m not doing enough,” he added. “I did enough to get there, but it’s clearly some more you’ve got to do to get over that hump.”
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 10, 2023
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