The date May 12th, 2025, will forever live in infamy for Jayson Tatum. Once the undisputed superstar of the then-defending champions, the Boston Celtics, and a player considered one of the very best in the NBA, his entire life changed with one move.
As he lunged to retrieve a loose ball late in Game 4 of their second-round showdown against the New York Knicks, Tatum heard an ominous pop, crumpled to the hardwood floor, and almost immediately knew what had transpired.
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Several months into his recovery, Jayson reflected on the harrowing moment that had threatened to unravel everything he had worked tirelessly to accomplish in the NBA.
The loudest pop
Diagnosed with a ruptured Achilles tendon, Tatum’s ordeal has been rough. Basketball was the center of his existence, and he had done everything he could to be extraordinary at it. For the most part, JT has accomplished everything he has set out to do in the big league: six All-Star berths, five All-NBA citations and an NBA ring to boot.
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It’s ironic, though, that such an ordinary maneuver like a basic lunge placed Tatum’s career in dire peril.
“It sounded like a gunshot. It was almost as if I had headphones on when I heard it. It was the loudest pop,” Tatum said in an interview with PEOPLE.
As Tatum fell, clutching his leg, he recalled a feeling of disbelief coursing through every fiber of his body. Jayson couldn’t believe he was going through the same thing he’d seen happen to his idol, the late, great Kobe Bryant, and contemporaries like Damian Lillard, who had also torn his Achilles in the first round of the ’25 playoffs.
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“I just kept saying, ‘No, no, no way this just happened to me,'” he remembered. “I’m turning on my butt, smacking the ground, ’cause I knew right away what just happened.”
Tatum feared his career was done
The NBA’s premier players have an aura of invincibility around them; there’s nothing any defense could do to affect their performance on the floor. Yet as he got helped off the court and placed in a wheelchair, unable to even walk on his own, Tatum questioned how things would be from that point. Would be able to walk again? Play at a high level? Play at all?
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“I broke down crying. I thought, ‘Will I ever be the same?’ At 27, I felt invincible. It all changed in a moment,” Tatum divulged.
As soon as he entered the Celtics’ locker room, Tatum let all his emotions show. He broke down crying as feelings of misery, pain, doubt and uncertainty all came crashing through the wall. Up to that point, JT had been fairly dependable, never missing more than 18 games in the regular season.
“I literally sat there and cried for two hours ’cause so many things ran through my mind,” Jayson disclosed. “‘Damn, is my career over? Am I going to get traded? Are all my partners going to drop me?’ My basketball career flashed in front of my eyes.”
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“I’m in my prime, one of the best basketball players in the world, and it felt like it was all taken away,” he concluded.
These days, Tatum is a lot less stressed. After a successful surgery, he is now rehabilitating his Achilles tendon and preparing for a comeback, whenever that may be. Although the Celtics team Jayson will be returning to is vastly different from the one he left (gone are All-Stars Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis), he’s keen on reclaiming the spot he vacated for the meantime.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 24, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.