Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum revealed he nearly requested a trade right before he played his first NBA game on the iconic Garden parquet floor.
In 2017, Gordon Hayward left Utah to join Boston in a four-year max deal worth $128 million to reunite with his coach at Butler, Brad Stevens, now the Celtics team president.
Tatum, the No. 3 overall pick that year, said he did not like the idea of coming off the bench to back up Hayward.
“I got drafted, then Gordon Hayward signed with the Celtics,” Tatum said on the “Club 520” podcast on Monday, November 4. “I called my agent, like, ‘Yo, I gotta get traded.’ That was before the NBA Summer League, before I ever played a game [for Boston].”
“He was like, ‘Relax, you gotta chill.’ I’m like, ‘Yo, I’m trying to play. I didn’t get drafted to come off the bench and not start.’ He was like, ‘You’re in a great organization. They’re gonna teach you how to play the right way.'”
Fortunately for the Celtics, Tatum calmed down after his talk with his agent and stayed in Boston.
Star Turn in Boston
Tatum’s fears were allayed when Stevens started him alongside Hayward in the Celtics frontcourt. But Hayward suffered a season-ending leg injury in his Celtics debut. Tatum logged a double-double (14 points and 10 rebounds) in his first game as a rookie.
And the rest is history.
Tatum, now 26 and in his eighth season with the Celtics, just signed the largest contract — five-year, $315 million — in NBA history this past summer.
A five-time NBA All-Star, Tatum is coming off his first NBA title.
It was the Celtics’ 18th banner, which broke the deadlock with their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers for the most NBA championships.
Meanwhile, Hayward was never the same again after the gruesome leg injury. He bounced around the NBA after his Celtics stint as an injury-riddled NBA journeyman.
On August 1, Hayward announced his retirement.
AEW Star Predicts Celtics to Repeat as NBA Champions
Mercedes Mone, AEW’s TBS Women’s champion and NJPW’s Women’s Strong champion, predicts the Celtics to repeat as they showed no signs of championship hangover in their hot start.
“We’re definitely gonna get a repeat,” Mone told Yardbarker’s Adam Taylor on the “Taylor Talks Wrestling” podcast. “I got to be right there when we won the championship this year. It was so amazing…So, I definitely am going to predict that we are going to win another championship this year…I just always feel so welcome and so loved in Boston. It’s just home for me. I put the ‘boss’ in Boston, baby.”
Mone, who started her professional wrestling career in Boston, is bullish about the Celtics’ chances. She has the right to do so after the Celtics got off to a terrific start.
They are 6-1 through their first seven games, thanks to Tatum’s MVP-caliber play.
The Celtics star is averaging a career-high 30.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists.
Jayson Tatum Joins WNBA Expansion Bid
Tatum wants to bring a WNBA franchise to his hometown, St. Louis, according to Sportico’s Jacob Feldman.
“Jayson Tatum is part of a high-powered group aiming to bring the WNBA to St. Louis. Tatum (an STL native) could become the 1st active NBA player to own part of a W team, which is newly allowed in the league’s CBA. But competition for Franchise 16 is already fierce,” Feldman reported on X on October 31.
The NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement allowed players to own up to 4 percent of WNBA teams.
Tatum’s St. Louis group will be bidding for the 16th WNBA franchise against more than 10 bidders, which includes NFL star Patrick Mahomes and his Kansas City group and the Philadelphia 76ers.
