Tatum still not getting his respect? What does JT need to do, to be regarded as a #top player in NBA?
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00:00The guy, you look at the Celtics team and you know Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown,
00:07but adding Porzingis and the way he approaches everything with a giant smile on his face
00:14can be underrated when it comes to the success they've had.
00:17They're undervalued when it comes to that.
00:19I thought that was the, for me, that was the biggest turning point for them to win a championship last year.
00:26Even though he was out for a lot of the playoffs, the games that he did come back and he played in,
00:32he was really impactful and he was really impactful for you throughout the season,
00:36which puts you in a good position.
00:38But when he's out there, you're a completely different team
00:41because he can give you a little bit of a low post game
00:44and he can stretch out the defense with his shooting.
00:46And, you know, it adds to the rivalry because he's going back to the place that drafted him in New York
00:52and, you know, he was viewed as the original unicorn over there.
00:56I also think for him, he's had now two post seasons where he hasn't been fully healthy.
01:01So I'm sure that there's a, there's an aspect to Chris Stops where he's saying,
01:04okay, now I finally feel good in my body.
01:06I want to show Boston like what I can really do.
01:09It's a perfect, it's perfect timing for him to really hit a stride.
01:12So I think that's probably why you're seeing him smiling so much.
01:14He doesn't care if he gets, you know, a split open eyebrow or a hurt nose.
01:19He's just excited and happy to be out there.
01:21Curtis, you said sweep on this, correct?
01:24Sweep-a-roo.
01:25Okay.
01:25Yeah.
01:26I mean, defensively, Magic, better basketball team.
01:31Yeah.
01:31Way better than the Knicks.
01:34Knicks have a little more length.
01:36And they got more offense.
01:38More offense, yes.
01:40Yeah.
01:40But their fans are all really short.
01:42Have you ever seen courtside?
01:43It's like Ben Stiller at 5'6", trying to jump and high-five.
01:46Spike Lee, yeah.
01:47They got some short fan base.
01:49But, yeah, New York has a better offense, you know, with – than Orlando.
01:53Yes.
01:54But there are – I mean, Kathmandu struggling a lot.
01:59Yeah, he's up and down.
02:00At least in the last series.
02:02They were – three of those games, they had to marshal a fourth-quarter comeback to win them.
02:09Yeah.
02:09The Celtics won't be like Detroit in the sense where if you look at Detroit in that series, they blew games at the end that they clearly should have won and should have been able to win that series.
02:21The Celtics, you know, they'll give you some – they'll let you get back into some games if they'll get a lead on you.
02:26But they generally close out pretty good, so they're not going to do the same – make the same mistakes that Detroit made at the end of games.
02:33So, I mean, listen, I wouldn't be shocked if they swept like Curtis said.
02:38I'd just go gentleman's sweep because I feel like generally you give one game away, bad shooting and –
02:44Well, and Jason Tatum averaged 36 last three games.
02:48Yep.
02:50Seems like the wrist is healed up and ready to go.
02:54So, I did see Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce on their podcast revisiting the lack of respect that Jason Tatum gets and suggesting that he has been so far the best player in the NBA playoffs.
03:16I don't know if you agree or not.
03:17I will let you hear – Sean, do you have that?
03:20I'll let you hear the way they discussed it and see if you agree.
03:23What they – why nobody talking about what Jason Tatum doing?
03:26Right.
03:26You see what he did since 220?
03:28Man.
03:28I looked at that.
03:29You saw that?
03:30He like first, first, second, second, first, third, first.
03:33He like arguably right now as much as we talking about him.
03:35Yeah.
03:36Arguably right now the best player playing the best in the playoffs.
03:40Of the new – of the new G.
03:41Man, that's what I'm saying.
03:42Like when you go and you say what you want to be like to a college right now, I want to be like Tatum.
03:47I want that – I want that career.
03:49Man.
03:49Early.
03:50That's what I'm saying.
03:50Think about that.
03:51He got – he got his experience early.
03:53It's time to start putting some more respect on his name.
03:55You can't – we can't just skip over him.
03:57Yeah.
03:58But he won't get it until – we kind of talked about this last week at some point in time.
04:03He won't get it until he does it in the Eastern Conference Finals, which then leads them to the NBA Finals,
04:10and then has to do it in the NBA Finals because until he – or even do it in the NBA Finals because let's say he's not great in the Eastern Conference Finals
04:19and they win and then he's great in the NBA Finals, then I think that's where he ultimately has to do it.
04:25Meaning that he has to be the MVP of the Finals in order to –
04:29He has to be the MVP and just – and when you look at the way the Celtics won their championship, it was – Jason Tatum was a major part of it.
04:41He has to make sure that in the second round too he has numbers like he had in the first because the first round people can still point to the first game
04:47and the fact that he sat out and people like Greg like were upset about the entire thing, thought it was a soft move by him.
04:53So he needs to not just go through the first round without any games that he was actually playing in where he had a bad game.
05:00But in the second round moving forward, he's got to do the same thing.
05:02But even then, Courtney, that won't matter because if he's great in the second round, then they'll say,
05:06all right, show us in the Eastern Conference Finals.
05:08And then if he's okay in the Eastern Conference Finals and they get to the NBA Finals, that's where we're going to judge him.
05:14We're going to judge him on the NBA Finals and what he does in the NBA Finals.
05:20And that's kind of – and he won't get the credit that he deserves until he shows them in the fact that like,
05:28okay, he was the best player on the team and there was no – like maybe – it's cool to have one bad game.
05:34Every superstar does it, but you can't be like a couple bad games and you're not the guy throughout this series.
05:41So that's when it's all going to matter.
05:43Has there ever been a one seed that's been so rightly just completely dismissed like the Cavs have been?
05:48I mean, they were excellent in the regular season.
05:51They beat the Celtics in the regular season.
05:53They dominated the Heat in round one.
05:56And last night they lose to the Pacers.
05:58And it's like – I don't know how anybody would think that that team has a chance in hell of getting through the Celtics.
06:04I don't think – but, Curtis, I agree.
06:07I don't think there's many people that think that they can beat the Celtics.
06:12Right.
06:13You know, so, I mean, they're one of those teams that, you know, I love Donovan Mitchell.
06:18I think he's an amazing player.
06:19But they're one of them teams now.
06:20They're at the point of like, all right, you got to show that you can win on the big stage
06:24and you can win in the Eastern Conference Finals and get to the NBA Finals.
06:28You, coach, are being accused of a dumb narrative by a texter saying that Jason Tatum had better numbers than Brown across the board in the finals last year.
06:39And so it's a dumb narrative to suggest that he needs to be MVP of the finals in order to get the respect on his name that he should have on his name.
06:48Well, why doesn't he have the – he did have better numbers than Jalen Brown.
06:51I think he does have respect on his name.
06:53Nah, stop it.
06:54He doesn't.
06:54He had better numbers.
06:55He should have won the MVP last year in the finals.
06:58You know, we can argue it.
07:00But he's the only player in NBA history that led their team scoring assists, rebounds throughout the playoffs and NBA Finals and did not win Finals MVP.
07:13So until he gets that, there are going to be people – I don't do it, but there are going to be people, a lot of people, who say, oh, he's not – he's on a good team.
07:27You know, we were doing it – and Courtney's right.
07:29We were doing it at the beginning of this – of the playoffs.
07:32So who do you think – give me – tell me who gets more respect than he does.
07:37Nationally?
07:38Yeah.
07:39Yeah, Anthony Edwards, SGA, Luka Doncic.
07:42Yo, Luka – you think Luka – all I hear about Luka is that he doesn't play any defense, and it's correct.
07:48So I don't know that he gets more respect.
07:49Oh, and then that he's fat.
07:50Yeah, I mean –
07:51Correct, we had to deal with him getting all the respect in the world before last year's Finals.
07:54Like, they kept saying how much better he was than Tatum last year.
07:57Yeah, but then you watch and you see the effect that the player has, and then you can alter your opinion.
08:02I don't – do you think a lot of people are looking at – I mean, Curtis felt like adding Luka meant you were going to be in the Finals.
08:09As the Lakers.
08:10Right.
08:11And so –
08:11Still has a shot if all the teams get sick.
08:15But that's –
08:16But, I mean, I don't – when it comes to respect on somebody's name –
08:21Yeah.
08:21I think it's diminished a little bit on Luka.
08:24It has diminished, and I think it's –
08:26But, can I just jump in here?
08:27Go ahead.
08:28Greg, if the Celtics win again, and it's back-to-back –
08:32Yeah.
08:33Jason Tatum will be the only best player on a team to win consecutive titles to never have an MVP in the history of the NBA.
08:42Yeah.
08:42He is not discussed at all as Kobe or Jordan or LeBron or any of those guys at their peak.
08:50Even Steph Curry.
08:52So, I –
08:53We can go back and forth as to why.
08:56We can talk about Jalen Brown and the great roster.
08:59But he is a unicorn in that sense.
09:02He is not –
09:02He shouldn't be in the pile of all those guys, especially if he's able to execute back-to-back championships, something Larry Bird never did.
09:11Right.
09:11Even you look at –
09:13Giannis is another guy that I think, you know, when we're talking about nationally, that might get more respect than Tatum.
09:19It's just –
09:21And that's why I said it's going to have to be until he gets to the NBA Finals, wins the Finals MVP, and then he – and then I think people will give him the respect that they should be giving him.
09:35But for whatever reason, you know, whether it's his personality, people don't like his personality, he doesn't say much.
09:42We heard it after the beginning of the playoffs this year.
09:45Like, oh, he's not a killer.
09:47He don't have this.
09:48He don't have that.
09:49I mean, you were beating the drum a little bit.
09:51Yeah.
09:52So that's part of it.
09:53When you look at players in the NBA right now, if you had to take the current players and say, all right, I'm taking that player to build the team around, Jason Tatum should be number one on the list.
10:08He does it all.
10:10Find me another player who does what Tatum does.
10:14I don't think there is.
10:16See, I think a lot of people would take SGA.
10:18But SGA – I don't think SGA –
10:20They're very similar when it comes to, like, their – what did you call it earlier?
10:26His – the alpha-like or –
10:29Their personalities, you mean?
10:30Their personalities, very similar, I think.
10:32Right.
10:32They're very similar.
10:33And I think SGA's a great player.
10:35But I think – and he's not this, you know, super, like, vocal alpha on the team.
10:42No.
10:43I would take – for me, because I think Tatum's a little bit better defender than SGA.
10:47He's longer.
10:48He's got better length.
10:49I think Tatum's a little bit better shooter when it comes to three-point land.
10:54So I would take him over SGA.
10:56Not knocking SGA.
10:58But people – he hasn't won a chip yet.
11:00And the other thing is, is in this sport more than any other, we seek reasons why great players on championship teams are better than we may already perceive them to be.
11:11We were rushing to say Kobe's the greatest.
11:14We were rushing to say LeBron was the greatest.
11:16We all agreed that Jordan was the greatest.
11:19Tatum is the only one of this collection where, for whatever reason, the national conversation is to find out why he is in something as opposed to saying he is.
11:28And I don't know – I think that's mostly anti-Boston bias.
11:32Like, I think national –
11:33Yeah, or anti-Celtics or both, right?
11:35I just think people are tired of talking about Boston teams winning all the time.
11:38They're sick and tired of the overly active and engaged Boston sports fan on the internet that occasionally will go after hosts who would say bad things about their team.
11:46And Boston fans consume media at a rate much higher than those in other markets.
11:52So if you say something negative about their best player, you will likely get more clicks.
11:56Game one tonight, you can talk about it all day.