After missing out on the All-NBA team for the 2020-21 season, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum lost a whopping $32.6 million in bonuses from his current contract. That's much more than what most of us would earn in a lifetime, so it's completely understandable that Tatum isn't too pleased with this development.
The Celtics star blames the NBA for this anomaly. To be more specific, Tatum's gripe is with how the voting system for All-NBA teams works. In a recent appearance on JJ Redick's The Old Man & The Three podcast, Tatum got brutally honest about how he believes the voting system is completely broken:
“There's no criteria set for the voters on who they should vote for,” Tatum said (h/t Joseph Zucker of Bleacher Report). “It's all opinion-based. … It's all like, ‘Well, you know, I like this guy a little bit more.'”
I'm pretty sure you'd be complaining too if you lost that amount of dough. I know I would. As a matter of fact, I probably wouldn't be as calm and collected as Tatum is here.
The Celtics stud then went on to share how this issue really got to him last year. Tatum is not the type to let the outside noise affect him and what he does on the basketball court, but there was one particular instance last season that had him questioning everything:
“The only time I let it affect me, I remember last year when I was in the playoffs—or the playoffs might've been over—and everybody was coming out with their All-NBA ballots and podcasts and who they were voting for. I had $30 million on the line to make it. I specifically remember one person saying, “I'm not a fan of his shot selection, so I just couldn't put him on my All-NBA ballot.' And I was baffled.”
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