When Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles in the second round of the playoffs last spring, fans took it exceptionally hard. It was one of the few times where they took a far-sighted approach; instead of focusing on the pain of the current series being lost, they looked ahead to the assumed inevitability that Tatum would miss the entirety of the 2025-26 season, and may not even be the same player after his return.
JT, a man who can’t stand to be away from the game of basketball, refuses to entertain that “inevitability.” In a recent interview on Today With Jenna & Friends of NBC News, the topic of his recovery came up. When posed with the question, “When do you think you’ll be back,” Tatum gave the response all Celtics fans wanted to hear: “What I will say is, I’m not working out rehabbing six days a week for no reason.”
Tatum was very clear about how he’s looking at the road ahead. “I think for me, my team, the doctor, the organization – the most important thing is making a full recovery,” he said. He stated that he won’t take the court until he is 100% ready to go, and as for a timeline, he said that he has a goal in mind that he didn’t share. He did refuse to rule anything out, saying, “I haven’t said like, you know, I’m not playing this season.”
Dr. Martin O’Malley, Tatum’s surgeon, told People.com that he hasn’t seen a patient recover like Tatum has. “I don’t think I’ve seen a person’s calf 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 he’s going to have any.”
Tatum is one of the iron men of the NBA. In his eight-year career, he’s only played in less than 72 games twice, both of those coming in the seasons which were shortened due to the COVID pandemic. This year was also the first year in which he missed a playoff game despite making the playoffs every year of his career. It’s one thing that makes his injury particularly devastating, but it seems like even now, he’s refusing to let the typical timetables hold him back, and seems to be healing like a superhuman, thanks in big part to his work ethic.
Jayson has stated multiple times how reluctant he is to take off games for rest while knowing that there are fans in the stands with his jersey on who got tickets just to see him play. It’s undoubtedly going to be killing him to be sitting on the sidelines, and he is clearly doing everything in his power to get back on the court.
In addition to the morning show on NBC News, Tatum also participated in some interviews with ESPN today. Malika Andrews asked him if he has a specific goal in mind right now, to which Jayson responded by saying, “absolutely… I put a date on the calendar of when I’ll be 100% ready and able to play. Whenever that date is, it will be a home game in front of the fans at TD Garden.”
It seems as though even if the Celtics aren’t in a competitive position towards the end of the season, if Tatum is ready to go, he’ll go. With Celtics’ Media Day less than a week away, JT is certainly giving fans a lot of hope heading into the season. He’s simply cut from a different cloth, and it’s clear how much this game and this team means to him.
