Celtics star Jayson Tatum has defined his journey earlier than the 2017 draft and the way he felt minimize that the Lakers didn’t even give him a glance in.
“I used to be in LA, the Celtics had the No.1 choose on the time. They got here to look at me in Phoenix. So Phoenix was 4. So, I labored out for all of them, they got here, watched me everyone was raving concerning the exercise,” the Celtics star mentioned on Membership 520 podcast. “However then someone, I ain’t going to say his title, however someone from the Celtics entrance workplace was like ‘Yo probably the greatest exercises I’ve seen’. He was like ‘Good luck in your profession however you recognize we received the No.1 choose. We in all probability not going to choose you’. At the moment I used to be like rattling.”
Tatum was coping with the information from the Celtics, in addition to the very fact the purple and gold paid him completely no thoughts.
“…For me, I grew up a Kobe fan,” JT mentioned. “Like, I at all times needed to play for the Lakers. So for them to have the No. 2 choose and it was like they didn’t even- it wasn’t even a thought that I used to be going to get drafted – that was sort of devastating. So, I by no means labored out for the Lakers. They by no means got here to look at me work out.”
Boston needed to carry Tatum again for one more exercise forward of the draft, nevertheless it took some convincing from his Duke coach on the time Mike Krzyzewski.
“I keep in mind Coach Okay was like, ‘Yo, Boston needs to have you ever for a second exercise. It is best to go,’” Tatum recalled. “I’m like, ‘Coach, they only got here off the Japanese Convention Finals. They received a veteran group, I’m in all probability not gonna play. I don’t wanna go.’ And he was raving about Brad Stevens. He was like, ‘Brad’s probably the greatest coaches within the league, simply go for one more exercise.’
“And I keep in mind, I went as much as Boston like three days earlier than the draft. I had one other exercise. I didn’t know the place I used to be getting drafted till they referred to as my title. However, you recognize, the remainder is historical past, and all of it labored out.”
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