They say you should always shoot your shot when you get the chance. A young Jayson Tatum took this advice to heart, addressing LeBron James on Twitter.
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Jayson Tatum was just 5 years old when LeBron James was drafted into the NBA. The son of a former HS volleyball player and professional basketball player, Tatum has sports running in his blood.
The 25-year-old has carved out quite the career for himself so far. He’s led his Celtics team to two Conference Finals and a Finals appearance in just 5 seasons.
The Celtics are currently the 2nd seed in the East with a 47-21 record. They led the league standings for most of the season and still have a chance to take the top spot.
Tatum was a top-5 jersey seller in the second half of the 2021-22 season. He’s also a top-5 MVP candidate this year, although he will likely not place top-3.
HS Freshman Jayson Tatum implored his idol LeBron James to follow him back on Twitter
Over the years, Celtics and NBA fans have found some well-preserved content created by Tatum. There’s the video of him showing you how to tie a tie.
There’s also a video of him just vibing with his high school friends, including future NHL All-Star Matthew Tkachuk. It’s safe to say that Tatum was not shy to put his life out there on the Internet.
The high school youngster seemed to also want to build a following for himself from early on. In one attempt to do this, Tatum tagged King James on Twitter, asking him to follow him back. Given that he was aged just 14, LeBron predictably ignored the tweet.
Years later, when interviewed about this, Tatum laughed off the one-sided exchange:
“I was trying to get my followers up. But I didn’t really understand how Twitter worked. I knew he ain’t see it. He’s got so many followers he probably didn’t see it, but it was funny that it came back up when we played them.”
Tatum has put LeBron on notice with his play
Tatum’s first memorable NBA moment was getting blocked on a dunk attempt by LeBron in his debut game. However, it wasn’t long after that Tatum got his revenge – on the playoff stage, no less.
Tatum has also hit a number of clutch shots in James’ grill over the years. It seems the young MVP contender has had the number of The King from the start of his career.
JT would count himself fortunate to ever be mentioned in the same breath as LeBron, all said and done.
