On Wednesday, the Boston Celtics took a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals over the Golden State Warriors, and their superstar Jayson Tatum helped lead the way.
He didn’t shoot well (he went just 9-of-23 from the field), but he hit timely shots while also dishing nine assists.
Although Tatum still has room for improvement when it comes to stringing together great shooting games and his overall offensive consistency, he has arrived as an NBA superstar.
Virtually all Los Angeles Lakers fans are rooting against Tatum and the Celtics in this championship series. But they may be shocked to learn Tatum not only grew up a Lakers fan, but that he also wanted to be drafted by them in 2017.
That year, L.A. had the second overall pick in the draft, while the Celtics, who originally had the top pick, traded that pick to the Philadelphia 76ers for the third pick in that year’s draft and a first-round selection in 2019.
But according to Tatum, the Purple and Gold didn’t really consider him.
The Lakers had tunnel vision
Although Tatum is a native of St. Louis, Mo., he was a Lakers fan growing up, and his favorite player was the late Kobe Bryant.
His stock gradually rose during his lone season at Duke University, and heading into the draft, it looked like the stars were aligning for Tatum to play for his beloved team, just as they did for Bryant back in 1996.
But the Lakers were zeroed in on someone else, so much so that Tatum was apparently an afterthought for them.
Via ESPN:
“The Lakers were my favorite team, and Kobe was my favorite player,” says Tatum, who wore a purple No. 24 wristband to honor Bryant in Boston’s win against the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. “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.”
That someone else was, of course, Lonzo Ball, who grew up half an hour from downtown Los Angeles and became a star point guard at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Lakers were suckered in so much by the Ball hype that Magic Johnson, who was then their president of basketball operations, personally visited the ball household in Chino Hills and met Ball and his father, LaVar.
In fact, the team didn’t even bring in Tatum for a workout.
The younger Ball hasn’t exactly been a bust, but he will never come close to breaking Johnson’s assist records, as Johnson…
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