BOMBSHELL: Jayson Tatum’s MIRACULOUS Recovery | Will He SHOCK the NBA with an EARLY Return?

BOMBSHELL: Jayson Tatum’s MIRACULOUS Recovery | Will He SHOCK the NBA with an EARLY Return?

Jason Tatum goes on a big media blitz to talk about his injury and rehab. And I’m more convinced than ever that he is playing basketball this season. We’re talking about it right now on the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Uh-huh. Y ready to see who else could it be? What they going to say now? Screaming like JT Caris every game, every practice. Prime Time Deon D White on the sideline. Rain and Jace. How we started raising business. How we finish. Locked on Celtics, home of the winners, baby. Hey there. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. We’re your team every day. Your team is the Boston Celtics and I talk about them every Monday through Friday for free right here for you wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch the show on YouTube if you’d like. uh get into the comments section there and share your thoughts with your fellow Celtics fans. Become an everydayer. Join me Monday through Friday and uh even extra days Saturdays, Sundays during the season when they play on the weekends. I’m John Carales. I’m a beat writer covering the Celtics for Boston Sports Journal. I’ve been doing this job for about 20 years now. I’ve written a couple books about the team as well. And today the team news is Jason Tatum on a big massive media blitz on Tuesday going on every show except this one uh to talk about his rehab. That’s okay. I got one better. I got Tom Westerhome. I got Tom Westerhome. Who needs Jason Tatum when I got Tom Westerhome right here? I I mean I I I had I I turned down all the offers from, you know, Good Morning America, from ESPN, you know, all the offers to come on and and and you know, talking. I turned him down because I said I said I was like, “No, like I know the show that Tatum’s not going on is locked on and I’m I’m I’m zagging while he’s zigging.” So, uh, how 2025 is it that the big injury update for the superstar Boston Celtic, uh, comes because he’s partnered with, uh, pharmaceutical company to push a painkiller. Uh, I Yeah, it’s almost more 20 It’s almost like more 2017. At least it’s a nonopioid painkiller. Yeah, it’s like, hey, look, take what we can get here. It’s like, yeah, I’m happy that it’s a nonopioid p opioid painkiller. I am curious. I gotta look this up. I’m not giving the name of the drug. I don’t care. Uh, he he’s very careful. I think he legally because he’s a partner. He’s like, well, you know, there are some side effects. I’m like, what side effects are there, Jason Tatum? That’s the question I need to know. What side effects from your painkiller are there? But see, what I want to know is how fast Jason Tatum can say them at the end of a 30 secondond commercial. I want to hear Yeah. I want to hear his full on like, you know, side effects may include. I I want to hear Yeah. So, uh Okay. So, Jason’s out there pushing the painkiller and Okay, fine. You need painkillers when you have surgery on your Achilles tendon and and like that’s uh part of the the process. So, let let’s start at the beginning. He’s down in a heap in New York. I I do appreciate that he opened up about, you know, basically crying for two hours. And I was back there. I was at MSG. I was I was like 5t away from like the room he was in watching his mom go in and out and people go in and out and like the faces like they were just you talk about forlorn for obvious reasons, right? Um, and him opening up about like is everything going to change? You know, here here you are 27 years old at the peak of your powers, just won a championship trying to hold on and and win a second championship and all of a sudden your your leg just explodes. You’re like, am I going to be am I going to be what I what I’ve been? You know, is he talks about are all my sponsors going to drop me? like all of this money that’s been coming in that sets up my family for generations, which by the way is the point of doing all of this, right? You’re it is a job and your whole point of your job is to make money to set up your family. He’s like, “Oh my god, is all of this going to go away?” So, I do appreciate like this this moment I joked about like why he was doing it, but at least we got like substance from him while, you know, while he was talking to all of these outlets. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, I think the whenever a lot of times when you see a guy go on one of these media blitzes, it it it really you just get a whole lot of a whole lot of nothing. And like, you know, I mean, I I think you know, we got like Yeah, we got some substance. We got him we got him talking about like the emotion of it all. And and I but I I also think too, I mean, you know, I’m sure we’ll get into this. I don’t know how how fast you want to start getting into this, but like I think we got some not answers, but as close to answers as you can get from a media blitz like this, right? Like you you got some you got the kind of hints that tell you things, I think. So yeah, I mean it, you know, it’s funny to see it all happen, you know, like see him just like make the most obvious like, you know, his agent has been calling around to all the outlets and, you know, he’s got it all set up in like the order of, you know, the order of operations. He’s got it all, you know, nicely timed out and all that. Like, it’s very funny to see that um unfolding in real time. But uh but it wasn’t a nothing burger like it is a lot of the time when when you get these. It was Yeah. It was substantive on a couple of different levels. Yeah. And so, right, he he actually was open and forthcoming and um I I do think the number one thing that obviously everybody wants to take away from it is all right. So, how you feeling? And I said it right at the top in the cold open. I’m more convinced than ever that Tatum is playing basketball this year. So, uh, we start in, uh, I’ll start at People magazine where his surgeon actually had a a quote that, uh, said, “I don’t think I’ve seen a person’s calf look as strong as his. At six or eight weeks, he was doing double heel rises. He worked his calf so hard that the side effect of loss of strength, I don’t think that he’s going to have any.” So that quote from the surgeon in People magazine is to me I don’t know maybe the biggest deal out of all of this because this is the guy that did the operation. Yeah. And look there’s obviously going to be some sort of you know pumping up. This is like we’re you know Yeah. Okay. But it’s there are ways to say things without saying things. And if you’re going to be definitive then like then that’s definitive. You don’t have to say this. You don’t have to say I don’t think he’s going to have any loss of strength. That’s a very specific definitive thing to say. I don’t think I’ve seen a person’s calf look as strong as his is a pretty definitive thing to say. You don’t have to say that if it’s not true. You can say, “I I like the progress that he’s making.” Yeah. You know, he’s really he’s really showing good good strength in that calf. Uh but to say, “I’ve never seen a person’s calf look as strong as his definitive.” So, yeah, that that alone makes me think like, you know, it’s to me it’s validating. Yeah. because I’ve been been like this is this is the exact thing the type of thing that I’ve been thinking is possible with Tatum. Yeah, for sure. And it’s, you know, you you say it’s it’s definitive. It’s it’s like you’re so right that there are there are so many ways to get around this. There’s so many ways and we’ve we’ve heard them. We hear them all the time. We hear them from we hear them from Brad. We hear them from Joe. Like it’s like and I think I think beat writers have have kind of a sense of that. Not to like gas, you know, beat writers up too much here, but it’s like you know exactly what is being said to you when it’s being said and and like and I mean, you know, you go on this big media blitz. You don’t go on this big media blitz if things aren’t going well. You definitely don’t go on this big media blitz if things are like and you definitely don’t have your surgeon out there saying like like this is incredible. I’ve never seen a calf muscle like you don’t have that if things aren’t going Yeah. Who is he Wolverine? I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Right. Right. Like things are clearly going very well. And like and I I think you know you hear you know some of his answers. you hear like some stuff that’s like, you know, kind of like, okay, listen, like, you know, it’s not over. You know, it’s like there’s a lot to be done. There’s there’s, you know, all kinds you gota you got to have all the necessary caveats on top of it. But it’s like, yeah, you don’t Jason Tatum’s surgeon is in contact with his agent, is in contact with Jason Tatum. And if if he’s going to a news outlet and is saying like these things, this is something that has been approved on all fronts, like everybody’s feeling pretty good about where Jason Tatum is at right now. Yes, absolutely. And then it’s funny, you know, you have to pay attention to all of the things that he’s saying everywhere because, you know, he does People magazine. Uh he does a Boston Globe, of course, uh he does Jenna and Friends on NBC. Um he does uh First Take and then NBA today. I think that’s all NBA Today. Yep. Yeah. So, it’s yeah, it is a progression. He’s got two like written things that are out there. Uh I can’t I can’t imagine that the People magazine thing was today. I think they got that ahead of time embargo on that thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, they probably got that a day or two ago, wrote it up, have it embargoed for for release this morning. So, I guess People was first. Uh Yeah. Yeah. you know, so it’s like People magazine. This is Jason Tatum, right? People magazine, uh, the the basically the Today Show and then your your ESPN’s and your local newspaper. Adam Hlesmach didn’t tweet it out until like the very end of the day. So, I’m sure I’m sure people at the Globe were like, “Hey, whoa, wait, how how are we not on this list?” Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. U. But anyway, the whole reason for me listing all of these things is that finally at the end of the day, we heard maybe the biggest piece of news that I think confirms everything that I believe. We’ll talk about that when I come back. Today’s show is brought to you by FanDuel. Maybe you want to bet on Jason Tatum’s return date. I don’t see that on FanDuel yet, but the NFL season is here and there’s plenty to bet on when it comes to football, college pros, whatever. And right now, if you’re a new customer, you can bet five bucks. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets. That is an incredible incentive to go to FanDuel and sign up and place that first $5 bet. Those $300 in bonus bets, you can use them on anything across the app. you want to build the same game parlay. You want to jump into live action as it unfolds. Uh whatever it is, you can use those bonus bucks. So, make that first bet a good one. Make it an easy one. Make it a bet that you almost guaranteed to win if those things exist. Take whatever and give yourself a good chance at those $300 in bonus bets. All you got to do is download the FanDuel app by visiting fanduel.com. Once you do that, you’ll get uh a notice. Set your budget. Set your limit. Do that. Plug in what you can afford to lose. Your disposable income, whatever that is, so you can have fun. And then when you hit that limit, boom, we’ll just come back to it next time. You’re good. And you’re having fun. You’re gambling responsibly. So, if you’re ready to play, download that FanDuel app by going to fanduel.com. Get started. It’s fuel.com to place that first $5 bet. If you win, you get 300 in bonus bets. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. This is the Wednesday locked on Celtics episode. Locked on NBA game night on Wednesdays. That’s my night now. So, back to Wednesdays with Jake Madison. We’re talking Pelicans media day. We’ve already recorded the show. Pelicans media day with with Jake. He was there talking about Zion Williamson. So, lots of good discussion there talking about the Knicks media day and plenty of Jason Tatum talk there as well. So, make sure you’re going to lock down NBA Game Night. Check out that episode wherever you got this. You got two podcasts on that feed, but subscribe for me and then listen to all the other ones. All right, let’s get back into the conversation here with uh Tom Westerhome. Finally, Tom, at the end of the day, we learned that Jason Tatum got back onto the basketball court. He This is 19 weeks, we you know, every Tuesday is another week he’s been saying. So, at 19 weeks, so that’s what five months, four months, something like that. 41 12 16 four almost 5 months he’s back in the basketball court went through his first workout talked about how that was a little bit of a a relief you know bringing in that mental thing that we talked about earlier and why I wanted to bring that up first we’ve talked about this before he needs to get past a lot of mental hurdles yeah like to me that’s so much more important like the Achilles tendon for a 27year-old superstar athlete That’s that is going to heal. That is guaranteed almost like 99.99999% guaranteed to heal. It’s just your body just oh yeah, we’re going to work through this and everything’s going to they sewed it together in a very innovative way and all like the physical stuff will be fine. the mental stuff where he talks about feeling betrayed by basketball. That stuff is you got to work through Tatum getting on the floor already. Like he’s already doing court stuff. Yeah, that’s that is I think a big deal because this is the beginning of the court stuff. Well, it’s September. You got October, November, December, January. How how many months of onc court work do you need before you can come back and actually play NBA basketball? That’s a long runway with a lot of NBA basketball still left to play for guys that just got onto the court on September 22nd or 23rd. Yeah. I don’t want to I’m not a doctor for anybody who had any illusions uh to to the to the contrary. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I know. Why do I have you on this show? because I was the only one who agreed to come on because Jason Tatum would not. So that’s why I’m on the show. Thank you. Yeah. No, we got to remind each other something. That’s right. That’s right. Sorry. Um, no, like listen, like, you know, so I I’m reading the same kind of, you know, tea leaves here as everybody else. But it is hard not to take a look at like him being back on the court in September, all this positive stuff, you know, that that it’s hard not to look at all that and think two things, right? It’s hard not to think about one him getting the surgery at an unprecedentedly fast, you know, it like so fast after the injury in such an unprecedented way from such an expert surgeon, right? It’s hard not to look at that and think that’s like super tied to all of major major and it’s hard not to look at the advances in technology and think, okay, we’re looking at something here, right? I think that those two things it is I don’t know, right? I I can’t know. I’m not a scientist, not a doctor, all that stuff. But it just it feels so, you know, it’s really hard not to put on one plus one together there and add it up to two and think like, okay, this this, you know, there’s a chance that this is a a really positive return from an Achilles. And like, you know, I don’t know. I don’t know. Any any number of things could happen. um, you know, all the same caveats as Jason Tatum would say, you know, in an appearance on uh, you know, on network TV, you know, all the same caveats of um, you know, like like see there’s a long there’s a long way to go, but it feels really positive that he is back on the floor in addition to this huge media blitz that that that is that that’s even on the table at this stage. We have been told over and over and over again the speed at which you get the surgery matters. We have been told that the sooner you can get to weightbearing exercises on this injury matters because doing the calf raises when the Achilles is repaired doesn’t affect the repair. We’ve been told that. it’s been said and if you pay attention like one of the things that I did when it became like okay here’s the speedbridge technique is I I dove into that thing man I watched all of the simula the the models that they did I listened to all the technical like being talked through the surgery on there like at a medical level like watching okay this is how they make the incision and all And you see like, oh wow. Like they basically like laced the whole thing back together. So it works like right. You got to get through the trauma. Yeah. You got to get through the part like okay this broke and it had but the you have to know how the the leg works what the tendon does and what it’s a connective thing that allows the muscles to work and okay so it’s reconnected and you you start to like I’m not a doctor but man I’ve played this game so much and frankly I’ve been hurt so much that after a while you start really digging into how does my leg work and why does all of this stuff hurt and what can I do to mitigate the pain that is in my I mean for me mostly my knees and so on and so forth but so yeah the worst thing about being uh you know above a certain age is that the answer starts being h you stop playing you stop doing it yeah just kind of stop doing it and you’re just like come on but all this is to say like I’m not a doctor just like like everybody else. But why why I was so confident is like I feel good about like knowing some of this stuff you’re like okay if you pay attention immediate and surgery was like immediate with this technique like what was this technique like wow this is pretty innovative stuff. Yeah, I’m the best guy in the world and now you’re doing all that in a 27y old guy at peak perfect health. Like this is a catastrophic thing, you know? It happens sometimes. But like I know that this calves of a god apparently like Yeah, it’s right. I mean just unbelievable. The best calves ever. all of this stuff like you see it and now you’re hearing it after the fact like yes this is exactly exactly what it was supposed to do right does that mean like tomorrow there won’t be a setback that can change this timeline of course not we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow but to hear Jason Tatum on September 23rd talking about all of this stuff I’m like yes this all lines up perfectly so what’s left if he’s if he’s on the court 15 minutes, right? Not like he’s playing playing basketball. Yes. Right. But if he’s on the court, that means that things have healed, right? To some degree, things have healed. And it’s like, okay, now we’re starting to stretch things out, right? We’re starting to get rid of scar tissue. We’re starting to now really get the body into let’s get the blood flow in there. Let’s really start working this. He’s That means he’s he’s graduate. He’s done the running. He’s been running, right? He has to have been running at some point. Even if it’s light running, like little. So to me, this all makes perfect sense. So let’s come back and talk about the plan like when he comes back, how he comes back, and how it should be approached. Uh, we’ll talk about that in just a second. Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Remember, Friday’s show, Thursday, is going to be Bill Chisum speaking at the Celtics practice facility. Bill Chisum finally meets the media on Thursday. So, on Thursday, I will be there. I will be asking him questions, however many questions I’m allowed. Hopefully, Celtics PR isn’t listening to this and saying we’re going to limit Carales’s questions, but I’m going to ask as many questions as I can, and you will hear those questions and answers on this podcast first speaking, first interaction with the Celtics owner coming up on Friday. So, make sure you’re subscribed so you can get that show. Uh, all right. So, if I were Celtics PR, I would not give you a microphone. That’s considering my track record with how this ownership change has gone. They might they might they might call in somebody else first. Uh we might really regret all those kind things we said about Jeff Twist. I gota I got to do a whole like maybe maybe tomorrow show will just be like a big Jeff Twist. Let’s just kiss everybody’s ass in there. Yeah. Yeah. because they’re going to hate me after th No, it’s that I I I will always ask legitimate questions. Yes, for sure. Uh but um I don’t expect them to be easy answers. No. U so but this isn’t an easy answer either when it comes to Jason Tatum because like I said before, okay, so he’s back on the court, right? And this is the part I don’t know because I’ve never actually had recovered from an Achilles uh injury, thank God. Uh but I’ve never had to recover from that kind of injury. Uh but we still don’t know like if if the healing process has gone uh as well as it seems to have gone. This um this step here of getting back on the court like it’s just I think a matter of tolerance like okay let’s see what the Achilles can tolerate. So, I’m sure it’s a lot of imaging, a lot of testing, a lot of, you know, okay, let’s let’s take a picture of this, like an MRI. Let’s see, and let’s go through the workout. Probably another MRI somewhere in there just to see is there any is there any inflammation? Has anything gotten worse? Is it reacting in a way that we wouldn’t expect? And there’s just a lot of like, okay, we’ve this is just checkpoints. Now the question really is Tom, how soon do you clear these hurdles? Jason was very adamant about not rushing. We are not rushing and I am very adamant that they should not rush. Everybody’s adamant about this. We are all on the same page. No rushing. 100% everything cleared. Yeah. But I also am very clear on there’s no such thing as better than 100%. Right. So when he is 100% ready to play NBA basketball, he should play. So I I it’s September 23rd, you know, like October, November, December. At the end of December, there’s like three months of being on the floor. Yeah. I’ve been saying March. Am I Am I not optimistic enough? Like I I this is the part where I’m like wait a second here. Is this is this going even better than we thought? I mean again you know NFL players have gotten the speed bridge and come back at a you know at times that are just like wow that’s that’s really fast right they they’ve come back I mean I I can’t remember what the off the top of my head but it was yeah it was like you know like six months months I believe. Yeah, I I believe there was, you know, NFL players have come back from this in six months. I mean, you know, and I don’t know how fast those NFL players got under the knife, right? Like I don’t know how fast they had the surgery. I no idea. Like there’s a chance that this went really well, right? like I you know we keep saying it but like it you know I I I think I think if if you’re Tatum right I I think that there’s certainly you’re 100% right that like if you’re if you’re ready to play play like if you’re if you’re ready there’s no reason to to delay it just because you’re like you know there’s there’s no reason to to delay it. I I do think that there’s a you know there’s a massive amount of care that should be and will be taken here, right? Like I think if Tatum was like in theory, let’s say he was 100% by January, right? I think that there would be reason to like, you know, like make sure that he’s at 100%, you know, like to kind of have those like a couple of weeks, whether it’s two weeks, three weeks, whatever, of just like, okay, we’re we’re sure he’s at 100, right? like to really kind of nail that down and say like, okay, like we’ve put him through scrimmages in practice. We’ve we’ve done all the things that, you know, we we’ve had him do all the cuts and all the stuff and and we’ve we’ve made sure that he’s 100%. I think there’s reason to be extra extra cautious, but I mean, there’s no reason to be so extra cautious that you delay him, you know, months down the line. Like if he’s if he’s ready like if he’s if he’s ready in January, triple check for a couple of weeks. Sure. Like yes. And then Yeah. There’s like at that point if you’ve if you’ve double checked if you’ve triple checked if everything is go, you just press go. Like you just go. Yeah. Like man, we really didn’t build a very good team this off seasonason. You’re really coming into a crappy situation, Jason. Sorry. We Sorry, bud. We thought you were going to be out longer. Yeah. That’s like That’s like somebody knocking on your door and like clothes are still all over the place and you’re like, “Oh, I didn’t think you were going to be here for like another two hours. I I got to shower up.” Yeah. Yeah. I’m I’m not ready. I like an hour ago. Yeah. Like I just ate. We’re supposed to go to dinner. Like I’m not like ready at all. Uh but but yeah. No, it as I’ve I’ve I’ve made jokes before, but I 100% believe like whenever they say, “Okay, we think he’s ready.” You go to his surgeon and you say, “Here’s what we’ve seen.” And you go to like obviously the team doctor, right? His surgeon. You go to go go to somebody who hates his surgeon, his ri go to a surgeon’s rival and be like, “This is the work that your rival did. what do you think? And have that person try to pick it apart. Like find the most like find anybody that can poke holes into that. And if that person’s like, “No, man. He’s ready.” Like that. Like that’s the level of triple, quadruple, quintuple, however many uples you got to get to to make sure that he’s okay because yes, you want him to be safe. And this is kind of unprecedented when we’re talking about NBA basketball, but all of the circumstances are unprecedented because of the speed of the surgery and the type of surgery and who did it and all of that. Like this is a unique situation. So, in a lot of ways, the old information you you don’t h you can’t consider that. And and one of the things that the surgeon said in the People magazine things like, you know, once upon a time you did this surgery and then you put them in a full leg cast forever and the leg atrophied and they never got it back and that’s why it was such a devastating injury. Things have changed. I mean this is like I I I don’t want to make other comparisons to other things but like there are the world is full of very serious medical things be them injuries or afflictions or things you can contract that once upon a time were like oh god and now you’re like oh okay no problem just just do this this and this and you you’ll be okay and like I think we can come to Tatum as like an example of Oh, this this might be kind of like the new normal of this is what Achilles recovery is now. I mean, if you can get to the world’s top surgeon within 12 hours, like absolutely right. Like, yeah, but that’s a priority, right? Like, wherever it happens, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but like Yeah. Like it doesn’t like you find a surgeon who can do this like the f like the moment it happens somebody’s on the call on the phone like who is close who who’s the closest awesome surgeon that we can fly in fly them in now and do the surgery at this hospital. If you know how to do an Achilles repair I get really good at it and move to an NBA city because Oh my god. That’s right. That’s right. Um, yeah. No, I for sure. I I think um I don’t know, man. I I It’s hard not to be optimistic. The whole offseason being so negative about this whole situation and it’s like it’s bizarre to just kind of now be like, I don’t know. Like seems like it’s going real well. I’m I’m starting to trend for like he might he I don’t even Let me start over on that. I’ve been saying that he’s going to play this season. I’m starting to wonder if he’s going to play this calendar year. I I Okay, which is I think that’s a little too rosy. Sure, that’s a stretch. Yeah, but but like but December is tell me tell me that I’m completely wrong though. It’s September 20. We’re recording September 23rd, October, November, December. You’re telling me that in three, if he’s on the court today, three months of it’s been four months of surgery rehab. So, he’s kind of halfway there. Are you telling me that three months of four, five, six day a week on the court, whatever that recovery is, like he’s not doing six days a week for nothing, right? Right. So yeah, I’m now this is where I’m saying I’m not actually saying that he will return in 2025, but my prediction of like he’ll be back by like all-star breakish beginning of March. Now I’m like beginning of February, January is January in play. One of these He said he’s coming back on a game in Boston in front of Celtics fans. So he’s already thought about this. Yeah. Now I’m like looking through January date like he’s got this planned out. Yeah. So I don’t know. Yes, December is super rosy, ultra optimistic. That is for sure true. I also I’m going to say tell me it’s out of the question. I cannot. No, I can’t. I mean, it’s it’s super rosy. It’s super optimistic, but like this media blitz could not possibly be more rosy and optimistic, you know? It’s like, yeah, I can’t tell you that it’s out of the question. One thing I will say is I’m real glad that on our uh on our uh Friday uh on our uh questions when somebody asked, “Is Jason Tatum coming back this year?” I’m really glad I backtracked. I would feel real dumb if I had been like, “No, I don’t I don’t think so. I don’t see I don’t see the point.” you know, if I if I had really stuck to that and then I saw him, you know, like, you know, his his doctor being like, “Oh, man. This is man of steel over here.” But you don’t think I got that one. Do do you do a media blitz like this and say like, “I got back on the court and things.” You don’t you don’t say all these things. You also don’t do this media blitz ahead of media day. You know what I mean? Like, right? Like if you weren’t coming back this year, if you weren’t coming back like a lot faster than people expect, you put your you put like Brad and Joe in an unbelievably awkward situation coming into media day. Yeah, they’re going to stick to the we’ll see. We’re not putting a timeline on anything. They won’t change their answers, but the questions coming at them are going to be uh little more pointed. Yeah. I don’t know. my my positivity is through the roof. And I like as a person who’s been since day one since like like seriously like two days after the injury once he got the surgery I was like I I have been saying he can come back this season. So I’m I’m feeling like the best about being on that train early driving the Jason Tatum can come back. The only reason people are saying no, he shouldn’t come back this year at this point is just I think it’s just out of sheer habit because fear. It’s it’s I mean, you know, it’s the same, you know, it’s the same it’s the same, you know, uh kind of qualms that Tatum himself is going to have, you know, getting back on the court. It’s the same every time he jumps, every time he, you know, cuts, you’re gonna be like, “Yeah, but like, you know, that’s we’ve all got to get over the trauma, too, right?” Like, we all do. We absolutely all do. If he trips and falls, oh my god, everything the the collective gasp inside the arena would, I think, implode the building because it sucked all the air out of it. Yeah, that that’s it’ll be Look, I think we would hear for the first time what it sounds like when tens of thousands of people all scream really high pitched at the exact same time. Just a massive eard drum blowing just everybody bleeding from the ears and Tatum’s fine just just trips just like except for the ears. Except for the the bleeding thing ears. Yeah. So, all right. Well, okay. That’s fun. Uh we’ll see how Tatum does, man. We’ll see how if he does all this to not play this season. I I don’t know. I lose my I mean, you know, the chaos I I would be here for the chaos, but I don’t It’d be a hell of a troll. hell of a amazing move, but I don’t think we’re I don’t think we’re headed that way. All right, Tom. Appreciate you as always. Appreciate you, man. And I do appreciate everybody listening, watching, however you’re doing it. The show is free. It’s here Monday through Friday for you. We’re back, baby. We’re back. The topics with the like we’re done making up topics. Uh except for maybe tomorrow, but we’re done because the uh because like I said, self new owner speaks Thursday. Then I’m going to do a mailbag on Monday. johncarles.com/mailbag. Media day is on Monday. And so we’re back. Media day is on Monday. Practice is on Tuesday. We’re going to be talking about practice. And who knows, maybe I’ll actually see Jason Tatum on the court and we’ll all be tweeting out those pictures and breaking the internet and all that stuff. So, we’re back. So, make sure you’re subscribed wherever get your podcast. Watch the show on YouTube. Get into the comment section. Share your thoughts and then share the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast. here on the Lockdown Podcast Networks. Your team every day.

Jayson Tatum’s Achilles recovery takes center stage. Is the Boston Celtics star poised for a faster-than-expected return?

John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal breaks down Tatum’s recent media blitz, analyzing the superstar’s emotional journey and his surgeon’s optimistic assessment. The discussion covers Tatum’s on-court activities just 19 weeks post-surgery, potential return timelines, and the delicate balance between caution and optimism. Tom Westerholm joins to offer insights on medical advancements and their impact on Tatum’s recovery.

Will Tatum suit up for the Celtics before March? Tune in for expert analysis on the implications for Boston’s season and Tatum’s future.

1:30 Intro: Jayson Tatum’s media blitz and injury update
5:52 Tatum’s openness about injury and emotions
13:38 Tatum back on basketball court after 19 weeks
19:57 Discussing Tatum’s return timeline and caution
25:35 Optimism about Tatum’s recovery and progress
31:16 Speculation on Tatum possibly returning in 2025
36:21 Outro: Upcoming Celtics content and media day

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Locked On Celtics is a daily Boston Celtics podcast by Boston Sports Journal beat writer John Karalis. It’s an inside look at the C’s from a former professional basketball player who is at practices & games.

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