Any American sports fan worth their salt knows that when it comes to Philadelphia, their fans don’t mess around. This is a city that is known for booing Santa Claus, after all, so if you play for a rival team and you come into the City of Brotherly Love, you’re going to get anything but that.
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Jayson Tatum found this out recently when he attended a local high school game to support former teammate Brad Wanamaker, who is an assistant coach at Roman Catholic High School. Roman Catholic was playing Devon Prep in the semifinals of the Philadelphia Catholic League, and the game was at the Palestra, the iconic Philly venue.
This guaranteed a raucous environment, but the intensity was heightened when Tatum walked in the door.
Roman Catholic and Devon Prep may be rivals, but they’re all Philadelphians, and they all welcomed Tatum with a full-throated chant of “F*** the Celtics” as he took his seat.
Roman Catholic cruised to victory by a score of 66-42 to reach the finals for the third straight year, where they’ll now seek to win their third consecutive Catholic League championship. The big story was Tatum though, who has spent his entire career with the Celtics but could easily have been a Sixer in an alternate universe.
Jayson Tatum received a “warm” Philadelphia welcome while attending the PCL Semifinals between Roman Catholic & Devon Prep at the Palestra yesterday.
His former teammate Brad Wanamaker is one of the coaches of Roman Catholic.
Tatum takes on the rival 76ers tonight.
(Via @… pic.twitter.com/eyWQ0dT9KI
— Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) February 20, 2025
Tatum was actually drafted with a pick that once belonged to the Sixers. Philly had the third pick in 2017, but they traded with the Celtics to move up to No. 1 and take Markelle Fultz, and the rest is history. Tatum has been an All-NBA player and an NBA champion in Boston, while Fultz famously struggled with his game and washed out of Philadelphia after just two years.
Tatum has spoken before about his relationship with Philly, and even said, “Philly had the No. 1 pick. They could’ve picked me. We’ve got a little love-hate relationship between us.”
For Sixers fans, Jayson Tatum is the one that got away
Sixers fans have had to endure a lot throughout the years.
The Process was not a fun time, but some fans were able to justify it by talking themselves into there being a reward at the end of all that suffering. Tatum could have been that reward, but Sixers general manager Bryan Colangelo made the wrong decision when it mattered most.
Not only did the Sixers miss out on Tatum, he went to arguably their biggest rival instead. This is a rivalry that once saw Dr. J punch Larry Bird while he was being put into a headlock by Charles Barkley and Moses Malone. There’s absolutely no love lost here.
Even if Jayson Tatum had no control over who drafted him, he still had to face the music with Philly fans who suffered as a result. Tatum will more likely hear boos tonight as well when his Celtics return from the All-Star break to take on the Sixers.
