Brandy Cole used a rare form of pedagogy for her son Jayson Tatum which paid dividends in the long run. The strict mother would take her son to college and urge him to maintain discipline. If he failed to do so, she would punish him in front of her fellow students. This regimen allowed the Forward to exercise patience during rigorous situations. Even Celtics coach Brad Stevens was in awe of his maturity as a rookie. The Celtics’ phenom revealed the role of his mom in instilling this maturity.
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“I knew when I was in the classroom I gotta be quiet,” revealed a 20-year-old Jayson Tatum to GQ in 2018. The repercussions of not staying quiet were heavy. He recalled, “And if I didn’t, she was gonna take me to the bathroom and whoop me in front of everybody.”
When she started bringing Tatum to her college, the latter was a preschooler. Cole was a relentless worker, who was committed to management at Cingular Wireless and also pursued a bachelor’s degree at the same time. But it wasn’t just her graduation where she would have Tatum tag along with her. This practice continued until she achieved three degrees, in communications, political science, and law. By then Tatum was heading to his teenage years.
She had to undertake such a hectic venture to meet her expenses and make sure that she accelerated her career. As a single mother, she had to ensure that her child could have basic needs fulfilled and ample education to move forward. Her efforts would pay off eventually. Thanks to the tough love and hard work of her mother, he worked hard on his game and ended up as a five-star recruit in high school.
He chose Duke over North Carolina and Kentucky. The one-and-done college player tallied 16.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game in the sole season for the Blue Devils. Eventually, in 2017, the Boston Celtics drafted him third overall behind Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball.
Jayson Tatum has been prolific for the Celtics
After being drafted by the Boston Celtics, the former Duke Forward took his game to unprecedented levels. He came out strong and averaged almost 14 points per game during his rookie year in 2017-18. In his sophomore season, he upped this average to 15.7 points a game. But it was his third season when he leaped. The 4x All-Star accumulated 23.4 points per game and also upped his rebounds to seven per game. His assists number also doubled from 1.6 to 3 during his third year in the league.
In the next two seasons, he’d average over 26 points, seven rebounds, and four assists per game. His heroics led the Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals. During the way, he earned the inaugural Eastern Conference Finals MVP honors, averaging 25.5 points, 8 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game as he helped the Celtics take down the Miami Heat in seven games. In the Finals, he enabled the Celts to take a 2-1 lead over the Warriors. However, they’d fall in six games
During the Finals, he dished 13 assists in Game 1 which was a record for someone making his Finals debut. It was clear that the Forward had improved significantly in every aspect but he shot just 36.7% and committed close to four turnovers per game. Still, he managed an impressive 21.5 points, 7 assists, and 6.8 rebounds per game in the Final. Because of how deep his Celtics go in the postseason, he has been the winningest player from the 2018 Draft.
Ball and Fultz who were drafted ahead of him are riddled with injuries, but even when they are healthy, Tatum has been ahead of them. Apart from him De’Aaron Fox and Donovan Mitchell have been superb scorers from that draft, but in terms of winning, they are nowhere near the Forward who averaged over 30 points per game last season. Lauri Markkanen and Bam Adebayo are two other All-Star-level players from the draft. However, it is not a stretch to say that in a redraft of 2017, Tatum would be number 1.
