Even as Jayson Tatum pieced together a historic start to his career, there was still the urge to write him off as a creation of the Boston Media Mafia. Yes, he was great, but still a rung below the absolute best in the league. Sure, Tatum made the Finals last year and won the inaugural Larry Bird Award (yet another Boston Media Mafia creation, stay woke), but he was outplayed by Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry and even arguably his own teammate Jaylen Brown during the Celtics' run. But today, with his 51 point masterpiece against the Philadelphia 76ers to send Boston to their third Eastern Conference Finals in four years, any skepticism is impossible to justify. Jayson Tatum has that dog in him, he's proven that he's incontrovertibly Him, even if it costs him his friendship with comedian and die-hard 76ers fan Kevin Hart.

“Special shoutout to Kevin Hart,” Tatum said after the Celtics' resounding 112-88 Game 7 victory over the 76ers. “You know, I still want him to answer my phone calls even after today. No hard feelings.”

Although the 76ers had mostly done a good job limiting Jayson Tatum for the first six games of the series, they had no answer for him today. Breaking Stephen Curry's recently set record for points in a Game 7, Tatum dropped 51 on Philadelphia, shooting 17-28 from the field (6-10 on three pointers) and 11-14 from the line. Beyond his gaudy scoring, Tatum also chipped in 13 rebounds and five assists. Most impressively, he totally outshined the newly crowned MVP Joel Embiid and James Harden—together, Embiid and Harden combined for just 24 points (15 for Embiid, nine for Harden), less than half of Tatum's individual output.