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Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic entered the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks' Wednesday night battle as two of the early front-runners to take home the 2022-23 MVP honors as they come out guns blazing to begin the campaign after being defeated by the Golden State Warriors in last year's playoffs.
And surely enough, both Tatum and Doncic came to play. The two all-world stars went blow for blow, with Tatum dropping 37 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Celtics to a 125-112 victory, while Doncic did everything he could, tallying 42 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists in a losing effort.
As is the case with sports discourse these days, greatness seems to be a zero-sum game, what with the endless debates as to whose legacy is more secure or who, simply, is the more impactful player on the court. With two of the best players in the league going head-to-head, a debate on NBA Twitter, accordingly, raged on as to who's more deserving to win an MVP between Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic.
Some fans, clearly riding the high of the Celtics' victory, prefer Tatum to Doncic, citing the 6'8 forward's ability to impact the game on both ends. They also brought up how Doncic commandeers what seems to be a more heliocentric Mavs offense, compared to Tatum's ability to blend within a more egalitarian attack.
Luka plays zero defense, wouldn't swap him for Tatum in a million years homie. Enjoy your L's.
— Bill Ari (@ImBillRay) November 24, 2022
https://twitter.com/JaredZero_NBA/status/1595616641404268545?s=20&t=ot-YcLt19ScghTbtUl2MjA
as long as defense exists tatum will always be ahead of luka sadly
— v (@roticidal) November 24, 2022
I'll say this: I'll take Tatum over luka any day. Luka is amazing. But Tatum can get 35 8 8 and also let his teammates get 20-30 a game. Celts have a team and dallas has a guy.
— Theryeguy 🇺🇦🇮🇱🇵🇸 (@Runner110988) November 24, 2022
Luka is probably an overall better offensive player than Tatum but the defensive gap between them is so big that Tatum is better than Luka
— Le5-6 (@deepyy_) November 24, 2022
Meanwhile, other fans quickly came to Luka Doncic's defense, saying that the only advantage Jayson Tatum has over him is a better supporting cast. Some argued that, by extension, Doncic is more valuable to his team than Tatum is, especially when the Mavs' offense craters without their Slovenian magician.
I mean Luka is more valuable to the mavericks than Tatum is to the Celtics
— ClainStencen (@Shakeblade09) November 24, 2022
which is why luka is way better than tatum, if he had a decent team he'd become tatum's father
— wishy wiz (@TOrangeguy) November 24, 2022
They keep saying Tatum and Brown got 68 together. Well so did Luka and C-Wood. The rest of the team sucked.
— Far west Mavs fan (@paul_furgerson) November 24, 2022
If anything this game just proved Luka MVP over Tatum. What would this game have looked like without him
— All.Time.Mavs (@MavsTime) November 24, 2022
At least one fan was able to see the forest for the trees. One user expressed his appreciation for both Doncic and Tatum's greatness – a boring option, perhaps, given how enthralling it can be to debate the merits of what makes a player more valuable than another, but a healthy perspective nonetheless.
I agree Tatum is #1 MVP like that’s not biased and I’m one of the most unbiased people on this app. Luka is great, Tatum is Great and I’m happy they will lead this league together for a long time🙏🏼
— 🦇🦇 (@OopToRob) November 24, 2022
On the season, Jayson Tatum has averaged 30.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists while Luka Doncic has put up 34.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 8.1 assists on a nightly basis. Both are clearly deserving of winning an MVP award at least once in their careers.
At the end of the day, both fanbases will agree that the Celtics and Mavs are well-positioned to compete for the years to come with Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic around to carry their respective teams to lofty heights.
