Late in the fourth quarter, Jayson Tatum went down with a non-contact leg injury. The kind you never want to see.<\/p>\n
Injuries are the worst part of professional sports.<\/p>\n
Players spend their entire lives sacrificing, grinding, and working on their games. If they\u2019re lucky, they make it to the big leagues. However, the higher level you reach, the greater the risk of injury. It\u2019s the nature of the beast. Still, that doesn\u2019t stop it from sucking.<\/p>\n
From a fan\u2019s perspective, you spend years, even decades, rooting for someone, watching them grow and mature in the search for greatness. In many ways, they become ingrained in your experience.<\/p>\n
For me \u2014 and I assume many others \u2014 Jayson Tatum is that player. I\u2019ve watched 99% of the games he\u2019s played in, with the other 1% being Team USA games that got no coverage where I\u2019m at. I\u2019ve trawled through hundreds of hours\u2019 worth of his game tape, following his development, improvements, successes and failures.<\/p>\n
To be honest, I could say that about most long-tenured members of the roster. Yet, for some reason, Tatum has been the guy I\u2019ve followed the closest, perhaps because he\u2019s the most talented. Or maybe because I relate to him as someone who became a father at a young age.<\/p>\n
So, waking up to find out he\u2019s potentially ruptured his Achilles tendon is a tough pill to swallow. Not only because of the implications that this injury could have on the Celtics<\/a>, both now and in the future, but because he\u2019s a guy we cheer for and have watched develop into a top-five player in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cTonight is tough,\u201d Jaylen Brown said during his postgame news conference.<\/a> \u201cI think everybody\u2019s at a loss for words\u2026 I\u2019m not sure how bad it is. It didn\u2019t look great. But I think everybody is more concerned with that (than the loss).\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s a player who has given everything to Boston and its fanbase. An ironman who fights to play in every game. A consummate professional who steers clear of scandal and bad press. And the first player since Paul Pierce \u2014 if not Larry Bird \u2014 that you felt had a genuine chance of positioning himself among the greatest Celtics of all-time, both in the rafters and on Boston\u2019s imaginary Mt. Rushmore.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong, Tatum\u2019s career isn\u2019t over. But if it is an Achilles rupture, he will be out for a while. I mean, my daughter might be graduating high school (16 over here in the UK, and she turns 15 later this year) or be close to it, before he\u2019s playing 30+ minutes per night again. That\u2019s a wild realization.<\/p>\n However, Tatum could potentially be facing a long road back. The hope is that he follows the Kevin Durant trajectory and returns as a still-elite superstar capable of spearheading a franchise. The good news is that, like Durant, Tatum\u2019s game isn\u2019t predicated on elite athleticism or an electric first step. He\u2019s a skills-based talent with elite processing speed and ridiculous fast-twitch reactions. An Achilles tear won\u2019t sap much, if any, of those skills.<\/p>\n We may have to accept that Durant is an outlier. Perhaps we could list Klay Thompson in that list, if he didn\u2019t have the ACL injuries to go with it. Fortunately, we\u2019re in a whole new era of medical and sports science, and Tatum takes care of his body, so I\u2019m choosing to remain optimistic.<\/p>\n Still, Tatum will need to adjust. Assuming the worst, I doubt we ever see him push back against load management again. Nor do I expect him to shoulder such a wide-ranging load where he initiates the offense, leads the scoring and is among the team\u2019s leading rebounders. His approach will change, as will his impact, for better or worse.<\/p>\n While we all wait for the official diagnosis, social media will be awash with notions of tearing down the roster, or trading Jaylen Brown (among others) in search of a re-tooling process. After all, not only did the Celtics lose Tatum to injury, they surrendered another big lead to go down 3-1 against the New York Knicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n