"Top-5 Tatum" Still Has Work To Do

The 24-year-old was named to the All-NBA First Team, but to truly cement his place as "Top-5 Tatum," getting the Celtics to the NBA Finals - he's two wins away from doing that - remains the focus.

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MIAMI – For years, Jayson Tatum has been building toward this moment, one in which his status as one of the NBA’s best players is unquestioned.

Being selected as an All-Star is nice, for sure.

But being named to one of the All-NBA teams is a greater honor, knowing that it takes into account how a player performs for the entirety of a season and not just the first 40 or so games.

Tatum moved one step closer to cementing his “Top-5 Tatum” status when the NBA announced the 24-year-old was named to the All-NBA First Team.

He joins a list that includes league MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets; Former two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks; Dallas star Luka Doncic and Phoenix’s Devin Booker.

The company that Tatum now finds himself in, is about as exclusive as it gets when you’re talking about the league’s top-tier in terms of talent.

But the way Tatum sees it, being named to one of the All-NBA teams only validates his status as one of the game’s top players, a class he has felt he has belonged to for a while.

He has never shied away from acknowledging the disappointment he felt when he was not named to the All-NBA First, Second or Third team last year.

Along with the status bump such accolades brings to a player, Tatum also lost out on a significant pay bump had he been named to one of the teams.

Instead of signing a max contract worth $163 million for five years, he would have been eligible for a five-year deal worth as much as $195.6 million.

“What’s the saying, a day late a dollar short?” quipped Tatum prior to Boston’s Game 5 matchup against Miami. “Last year is last year, and (I) can’t change it.”

Between his salary and endorsement deals, Tatum said the difference moneywise isn’t what bothered him the most about being left off of the all-NBA teams last year.

“It was more…I felt disrespected,” Tatum said. “The criteria (for all-NBA teams) is so wide open.

He added, “Do I think I was one of the top 15 players last year? One thousand percent. But, that’s behind me now. I made it this year and now we’re trying to win a championship.”

And that, maybe more than anything else, is why Tatum’s status among the game’s elite players is only going to get stronger with time.

At 24, Tatum has already been named an All-Star three times. He is the owner of several franchise records already which is scary considering his age and how his game has seemingly gotten better every year he has been in the NBA.

That kind of steady growth is among the many reasons why Tatum has emerged as the face of the franchise, a player whose future in Boston will be as long as he wants it to be.

But winning a championship, more than awards and accolades, is what motivates him these days.

This is his third trip to the Eastern Conference finals, an impressive accomplishment for someone who is nearing the end of just their fifth NBA season.

In each of the previous two trips, the Celtics failed to move on to the NBA Finals, losing to Cleveland in 2018 and Miami in 2020.

But in the two previous instances, Tatum was not viewed as the best player on his team let alone the best player in the series.

That’s not the case now.

The only real contender with Tatum in this series as its best player, is Miami's Jimmy Butler.

Tatum's statistics, while impressive, isn't what makes him one of the game's premier players. It's how he has shown himself capable of bouncing back quickly when he doesn't perform well.

Boston had a horrific Game 3 performance which included Tatum scoring just 10 points on 3-for-14 shooting.

He bounced back in Game 4 with a much better game, scoring 31 points on 8-for-16 shooting to go with eight rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.

Game 4 was the kind of balanced performance Boston needed to get the win, the kind of performance you expect - Tatum expects - when the stakes are high.

Like tonight’s game, one in which the winner will then find themselves a victory away from a trip to the NBA Finals.

“Both teams know what’s at stake,” Tatum said. “It’s obviously going to be a challenge. That’s the fun part about it. I’m really excited about tonight, and ready to play.”