“Kobe Bryant was my favorite player, my dream was to be a Laker!”: Celtics’ Jayson Tatum expresses 2017 NBA Draft frustrations ahead of game-3 vs Stephen Curry’s Warriors

Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum opens up on not being selected by his favorite team in the LA Lakers on NBA Draft night 2017

Jayson Tatum is one helluva player, isn’t he?

Throughout his time in the NBA, the man has shown some serious promise. He came into the league as a gifted scorer, but someone who was one-dimensional at best. Then he started to develop as a passer. And now, not only is he an excellent playmaker, but he has also become one of the better defenders in the entire NBA. That is some transformation.

All of this is the reason why he is the best player on what is right now, a championship-caliber team in the Boston Celtics.

But… what if it wasn’t the Celtics Tatum headlined? What if it was their eternal rivals in the Los Angeles Lakers?

Ahead of game-3 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, the Boston star decided to speak up on his feeling during the 2017 NBA Draft. And well, let’s just say, there isn’t a Laker fan on the planet who’s going to like hearing it.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

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Jayson Tatum admits he wanted to go to the LA Lakers, and not the Boston Celtics in the 2017 NBA Draft

We here at The SportsRush are major fans of Lonzo Ball. But even we have to admit, the Lakers OBVIOUSLY messed up on this one.

Even at his best, Ball’s upside is not ‘superstar’, while on the other hand, Jayson Tatum is one already. And as if passing up on that wasn’t bad enough, you have that same man letting this out to the media right before game-3 of the NBA’s highest summit.

Take a gander at the tweet below.

Jayson Tatum:

“The Lakers were my favorite team, and Kobe was my favorite player.. So it was crazy that the Lakers had the second pick and I was so close to a dream come true. But it was just like they didn’t want anything to do with me at the time.”

(via ESPN) pic.twitter.com/1Z1lPLvGWh

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) June 8, 2022

In case you may not be aware here, the 2017 NBA Draft, the LA Lakers had the 2^nd pick, while the Boston Celtics had the 3^rd. And of course, as you may know already, Lonzo Ball was picked up by the Purple and Gold, while Jayson Tatum was picked at 3^rd overall by Boston.

Crazy to think that there would be one less championship-caliber team in the NBA if the Lakers front office, headed by Magic Johnson at the time, would have just been a tad bit more competent at their jobs.

We won’t lie though, a something tells us even if they did make the right choice, they’d have traded him away anyway.

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