The Boston Celtics expressed their commitment to Jayson Tatum by agreeing to an NBA record-breaking five-year, $314 million extension with the 26-year-old fresh off the organization’s 18th championship.
Now with an offseason to take a breather and dust off all the green and white confetti, Tatum took a moment to express his gratitude and commitment to not just the Celtics organization, ownership, or the front office, but the city of Boston.
“For me just to feel wanted, and they want me to be here and want me for the long haul,” Tatum said, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “I’ll spend my whole career here and have got nothing but love for the fans, the city, and the organization. You know, we just won a championship, and I want to try to win as many as I can.”
Last offseason, the Celtics showed their trust in Tatum and co-star Jaylen Brown by giving president of basketball operations Brad Stevens the green light to acquire whoever it took to form a supporting cast capable of reaching the mountaintop. Evidently, that meant shipping off Marcus Smart, Robert Williams III and Malcolm Brogdon to acquire Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday in two separate trades.
It also meant the 2022-23 Celtics couldn’t be the 2023-24 Celtics. Tatum stood tall and invested at the forefront of what head coach Joe Mazzulla believed would be the best way or transform Boston’s identity into one that would take ownership of the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed on Nov. 14, and not lose it for the rest of the regular season.
Tatum, now five All-Star appearances deep into his young and stellar career, helped end Boston’s 16-year-long championship drought, however, the expectations haven’t dipped.
Since the Celtics elected to retain its 64-win starting lineup of Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, Holiday and Derrick White — though for a jaw-dropping $920-plus million — there’s no reason to lower the bar. Tatum and Brown are still in their prime years, the Holiday-White backcourt was the most defensively fierce in the league and Boston has the depth to sustain the five-to-sixth-month Porzingis recovery time that’ll make its way into the start of the season — the Celtics went 21-4 without Porzingis in the regular season.
The laundry list of incentives for Tatum to spend the entirety of his career with the Celtics was already present, even before the team won the NBA Finals. But now having Tatum officially on board opens the door for possibilities, including a repeat in 2025.
