Celtics' Jayson Tatum weighs in on MVP chatter amid scorching start

10/24/2024 11:38 PM

Playing as if they still have something to prove despite coming off a championship run, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics have been off to the races to begin the 2024-25 season. They followed up their historic shooting night in a blowout opening night win over the New York Knicks with another outstanding effort on Thursday night, this time taking care of the hapless Washington Wizards, 122-102.

Tatum, in particular, has been playing like he’s a man on a mission; as an encore to his 37-point, 10-assist performance on opening night, he put up 25 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists against the Wizards. With Tatum playing like an MVP so far, it’s hard not to look at the Celtics and view them as the favorite to win the Larry O’Brien trophy come next season. And indeed, Tatum is doing his best to earn the league’s most prestigious individual regular-season award.

“As a kid, you set a lot of goals for yourself. And I’ve been very fortunate to check off a lot of boxes of things that I want to accomplish. Saying that [winning] MVP is important to me is not taking away from the success of our team. Every guy that has ever won MVP has been on a championship-contending team. If you’re an MVP, you’re dominating, you’re efficient, you’re playing the right way and you’re impacting winning. So you can do both. Championship is the most important but being the best version of yourself along the way is important as well,” Tatum said in his postgame presser, via Celtics on CLNS on X (formerly Twitter).

Jayson Tatum on what the MVP would mean to him:

"If you're an MVP, you're dominating, you're efficient, you're playing the right way and you're impacting winning. So you can do both. Championship is the most important."

Full Interview: https://t.co/7HYWitDC4A

by… pic.twitter.com/5jN45qwSis

— Celtics on CLNS (@CelticsCLNS) October 25, 2024

Now, Tatum’s numbers will undoubtedly regress to the mean. It’s not totally impossible, but it’s unlikely for the Celtics star to keep on shooting 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from three like he has through their first two games. But he has been showing incredible playmaking, and he seems to be locked in on a nightly basis.

If Tatum manages to somehow play similarly to the way he has done for the Celtics’ first two games and they keep on winning, he should garner plenty of MVP consideration — and perhaps even win the award.

Celtics’ Jayson Tatum responds to his critics in a major way

Jayson Tatum took a backseat to Jaylen Brown during last year’s postseason; Tatum had his fair share of shooting struggles, while Brown was more consistent from a game to game basis. Thus, it was Brown who ended up winning the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and the Finals MVP awards.

And then during the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tatum ended up being one of Team USA’s least-used players, alongside Tyrese Haliburton. The Celtics star even failed to make a jumpshot during this competition.

It may be early for Celtics fans to throw a victory parade over how Jayson Tatum has played through their first two games. But given how many criticisms Tatum was on the receiving end of to end last year’s playoffs and during the 2024 Olympics as well, they are justified in their feelings of vindication.

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