Jayson Tatum admitted it was “kind of devastating” that the Los Angeles Lakers never attended one of the star’s workouts ahead of of the 2017 NBA Draft. Tatum grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant and wanted to play for the same team the person he looked up to did.
Tatum ended up getting drafted by the Boston Celtics with the No. 3 overall pick after trading the first pick to the Philadelphia 76ers. Los Angeles had the No. 2 pick and selected Lonzo Ball.
But ex-Lakers exec Magic Johnson revealed it wasn’t on the Lakers for not attending one of Tatum’s workouts.
“I wanted to address that and let him know, yes, we looked at him. But his agent also didn’t want us to work him out, because he didn’t want him to end up with the Lakers,” Johnson said during his appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio. “Because we are already top-heavy with forwards, and that’s why they wouldn’t work out for us.
“See, I was there — so I can tell Jayson what really happened. His agent didn’t want him to work out for us, because he knew it wasn’t a good situation,” he continued. “After all, we already had too many forwards. ... We took a look at him. … But the problem was, we were top-heavy with forwards. I couldn’t take him because we had Brandon Ingram, who was only in his second year, Julius Randle, Larry Nance Jr. So I already had too many forwards.”
Tatum recalled on “Club 520″ podcast that he called his agent shortly after he was drafted and said he needed to be traded because he was concerned about playing time after the Celtics signed Gordon Hayward.
“He’s like, ‘Relax. Just wait it out. 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,’” Tatum said. “He was like, ‘You’re in a great organization. They’re going to teach you how to play the right way.’”
Tatum ended up getting more playing time than he probably thought. Hayward suffered a gruesome leg injury minutes into his Celtics debut, which opened the door for Tatum to see more minutes. He averaged 30.5 points and helped lead Boston to the Eastern Conference Finals — where the team eventually fell to the Lebron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers.
It’s been a success run thus far in Boston for Tatum. He has five All-Star nods, two gold medals and an NBA championship. He doesn’t have an MVP to his name, but Tatum predicted that would come this year.
