Jayson Tatum has had himself quite the year. 2024 has been a banner year for Tatum, breaking through with an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics, as well as winning his second gold medal in a fruitful, albeit personally difficult, run with Team USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics. He has blossomed into one of the most recognizable professional athletes in the planet as a result and he appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to discuss everything there is to talk about under the sun.

Fallon, ever the pot-stirrer, asked the Celtics star which NBA peer of his would make the best professional wrestler. Tatum, of course, responded with the lowest-hanging fruit imaginable: Golden State Warriors forward and noted enforcer Draymond Green.

“If there was an NBA player that you think would one day have a successful 2nd career as a WWE wrestler, who would that be?” Fallon asked.

“I love him to death — Draymond Green,” Tatum answered with a huge smile on his face.

There is no better answer to this question than Green — the NBA's most notorious physical offender over the past year or so. Green has been on some sort of anger tour during the past two seasons, even costing the Warriors some valuable games in the process.

When Green is locked in, he remains one of the most impactful defenders in the association. Jayson Tatum and the Celtics know this firsthand, with Green playing a crucial role in helping the Warriors defeat them in the 2022 NBA Finals.

However, the 34-year-old forward has crossed the line of contact that is deemed to be acceptable in the NBA over the past two campaigns. He stamped on Domantas Sabonis in the playoffs, put Rudy Gobert in a chokehold in an attempt to break up an altercation, and then he took a violent swing against Jusuf Nurkic that proved to be the last straw for the league office, which had no choice but to dole out an indefinite suspension.

It won't be a surprise to anyone, let alone to the Celtics star, if Green has a career in the WWE waiting for him once the clock strikes midnight on his professional basketball career. And at 34 years of age, it shouldn't be long before the Warriors forward hangs up the sneakers.

Jayson Tatum and the Celtics look to remain atop the NBA totem pole

Maintaining the same level of motivation isn't always easy for a team that had recently won a championship. After all, it's very tiring to go through the grind of an 82-game regular season as well as to have to overcome the four-series playoff gauntlet en route to hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy.

For the Celtics at least, it looks as though they are maintaining an immense level of focus heading into the 2024-25 season. Jayson Tatum has already called upon his teammates to remain at their best, refusing to fall into complacent ways and have other teams gun for their throats successfully.

Meanwhile, head coach Joe Mazzulla has already channeled his inner philosopher, saying that the Celtics should not merely defend their championship, but as the apex predators of the NBA wild, they must also be the most feared attackers in the land. The Celtics may encounter plenty of difficulties in their quest to repeat as champions, but they are ready for whatever it is their opponents throw their way.