Subscribe
Follow Us
Boston Celtics champion and Olympic gold medalist Jayson Tatum added new ink to his body to commemorate one of his many accomplishments throughout the past two seasons. After scoring 55 points in the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, setting a new record for most points ever scored in the NBA's star-studded game, Tatum took home the game's Most Valuable Player award named after the late-great Kobe Bryant.
Tatum idolized the five-time Los Angeles Lakers champion. On his personal Snapchat, Tatum posted a picture of the All-Star MVP trophy tattooed on his right thigh.
Jayson Tatum adds some new ink of his All-Star Game MVP trophy, named after the late Kobe Bryant 🏆 🖋️
(Via @jaytatum0 Snapchat) pic.twitter.com/jFu3ssNYj1
— Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) August 23, 2024
Tatum is having an eventful summer. After capturing his first championship with the Celtics, beating Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the 2024 NBA Finals, Tatum won his second Olympic gold medal with Team USA and is gearing up for his eighth NBA season.
Jayson Tatum's tributes to Kobe Bryant
While earning MVP at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game alone is an honor, winning the trophy named after your all-time favorite player, Kobe Bryant, had to make winning it all the more special for Jayson Tatum. After his rookie season, Tatum had an off-season workout with Bryant, to which he described himself as happy as “a kid in a candy store.”
On an episode of “All The Smoke,” hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, he talked about what that experience was like.
“A lot of attention to detail,” Tatum said. “It wasn't really anything that I couldn't do. It was a bunch of moves that he'd seen me do and that he did. It was all the little things to think about. That's what I really took from it, the little things that he would think about that I never really heard anyone else in how they approached the game.”
The Celtics five-time All-Star points to Kobe as a big reason why he plays the game and describes how Bryant's death had a tremendous impact on him in a personal Instagram post.
“Heartbroken. My hero. My idol,” Tatum wrote in the caption under a photograph of a young Tatum standing next to Bryant. “The reason I started to play this game, the reason I fell in love with this game. Growing up wanting to be just like you, to you becoming a mentor, beyond thankful for everything you've done for me.”
Then, ahead of Game 7 of the Celtics' Eastern Conference Final series against the Miami Heat, Tatum sent a text to Kobe's phone that read, “I got you today” before finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists to push Boston to the NBA Finals in 2022.
