Tatum Reveals the Most Satisfying Thing About Winning the NBA Championship originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
Jayson Tatum silenced many doubters during the 2023-24 NBA season.
He helped the Boston Celtics to the league’s best record at 64-18 and was named first-team All-NBA for the third consecutive campaign. And then he led the Celtics in points, assists and rebounds in a dominant playoff run that saw the historic franchise win 16 of 19 games. on the way to an NBA Finals triumph about Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks.
After nearly winning a title multiple times in his career, Tatum and the Celtics finally did it. And no matter what happens in the rest of his career, he will always be called a champion.
What is the most rewarding part of winning a title? Tatum answered that question during the last episode of Old Man and the Three podcast.
“To me, the most satisfying thing about winning is: In the age of social media that we live in and TV (shows), there are so many things they can debate,” Tatum said.
“He’s the best player, he’s in the top five? They can’t debate that I won a championship. It’s something they can’t take away from me. I sleep a lot better at night. I honestly don’t care what they say anymore. I I did it. What they said I couldn’t do, I did it.
The endless debates over whether Tatum can lead the Celtics to Banner 18 are finally over. He and Jaylen Brown have proven they can step up in decisive moments on the sport’s biggest stage. They did this during the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals.
Now the challenge for Tatum and the rest of the Celtics is to repeat as champions. No team has achieved this feat since the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018.
