Even in the aftermath of a Gold Medal victory over the host nation of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Team USA forward Jayson Tatum couldn't hide his dissatisfaction with how tumultuous the experience of representing his country for the second time had been this summer. Tatum reflected on the tournament and the two DNP-CD's he received from Team USA head coach Steve Kerr in a pair of matchups with Serbia, calling the entire experience “challenging and humbling,” according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst. But perhaps a better word to describe Jayson Tatum's summer would be “historic.”
Once the dust settles and Jayson Tatum returns from Paris to Beantown, hopefully this will be the way that he's able to internalize what has been accomplished over the course of the last two months. After all, even with a diminished role in international play and a subpar individual performance in the 2024 NBA Finals, Tatum is still one of just three players ever to make 1st Team All-NBA in the same year in which they won an NBA Title AND an Olympic Gold Medal. And you may have heard of the two guys he belongs to this club with.
So to recap: Tatum wins the NBA Title as the best player on the best team in the NBA, though it's teammate Jaylen Brown who wins Finals MVP. Then Tatum spends the next month playing for Team USA, going to battle alongside many of the best basketball players in the world, and that experience concludes with a Gold Medal victory. Doing so, he joins a prestigious three-man group with LeBron James and Michael Jordan. And do I need to remind you that prior to the start of Team USA Training Camp, the Celtics and Tatum agreed to the richest deal in NBA history?
What's the encore for Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics?
If Jayson Tatum is going to continue to walk in the footsteps of LeBron James and Michael Jordan, then it could mean great things are ahead for the Boston Celtics. In each of those two previous instances when James and Jordan hit the Summer Trifecta in 2012 and 1992 respectively, the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls would go on to win the NBA Title again the following year. Surely Celtics fans would be wicked pumped if banner #19 was soon on the way.
Of course, repeating as NBA Champion is no easy feat. Even in Boston, the city home to the most NBA Championship teams, the only group of Celtics to win multiple titles in a row were groups led by Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and John Havlicek in the 1960's. The Celtics will enter the 2024-25 season as the championship favorites, but it may require Jayson Tatum reaching another level for Boston to hang another banner.
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