Despite what online trolls may say, this is the summer of Jayson Tatum. In the last four months, the 26-year-old has won his first NBA championship, secured an Olympic gold medal and made his debut on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’.
During the interview, Fallon brought out an essay written by the five-time All-Star when he was just 9 years old. In it, Tatum had written down his goals- most relevantly, playing in the NBA and representing his nation at the Olympics before he turned 30. Jimmy Fallon took this as a sign that Jayson Tatum possessed some mystical foresight.
“Since we now know that you can predict the future, I thought that I could ask you some questions about the upcoming basketball season,” the 49-year-old quipped. He wasn’t kidding though as he asked Tatum to predict certain outcomes from the 2024-25 NBA season.
The biggest question of the lot was who Tatum thought would be in the Finals next year. JT answered, “The Boston Celtics,” before taking a minute to think about their opponent. “Uh, it’s going to be a rematch. We’re going to play Dallas again,” he concluded.
Tatum has paid attention during the off-season. The Mavericks, who shot 31.6% from deep in their Finals series against Boston, have made big moves to address their weaknesses. Klay Thompson alone improves their spacing significantly, and the additions of Naji Marshall and Quentin Grimes should bolster their perimeter defense.
Clearly, Tatum ranks Luka Doncic’s side highly, though he didn’t specify which team will be coming out on top in the rematch. What he did touch on though, was his pick for the 2024-25 Most Valuable Player.
Tatum has high hopes for himself and the Knicks
The first question Jimmy Fallon threw out was about his hometown team, the New York Knicks. He asked Jayson Tatum if his side would win more or fewer games than they did last season (50).
“They’ll win a few more,” Tatum nonchalantly answered, prompting an excited scream from Fallon. The talk-show host then asked JT to predict the next NBA MVP. Humbly, Jayson responded, “Can I say myself?”
Last season, the Boston Celtics #0 kept falling in and out of the MVP ladder’s top 5 ranking. He ended the season at the number five spot, partly due to his consistent output and partly due to the historic greatness of his team.
Coming into the 24-25 season, odds have Luka Doncic as the favorite to take home the KIA MVP, with Jayson Tatum falling out of the top 5. This is fair given that Tatum can’t dominate the same way SGA, Jokic or Doncic do with so many top talents sharing the ball on his team.
Nonetheless, if that translates to more team success and another Finals berth for the Celtics, we might just start to believe Jayson Tatum’s ability to foresee the future.
