There was always a chance Jayson Tatum would be in street clothes for the Celtics’ final game of the season. He just didn’t expect it to happen in a do-or-die Game 7, after he had played 22 games.
“It was tough. I was upset. I was sad. I was disappointed all day,” Tatum said at his exit interview on Sunday afternoon. “I didn’t think it was going to end that way. I spent too much time on the bench watching the team play, so I knew how that felt. It just kind of never really crossed my mind. Once I came back, everything was going so well. So to have to sit [in Game 7], in the biggest game of the season, and just not being able to be out there and be a part of that. Obviously, everybody knows how much I care about this game and love being out there. So just having to sit there in that moment, it was just tough. It was frustrating.”
Tatum’s return from a ruptured Achilles tendon in only 298 days was nothing short of remarkable.
In his 22 games, he averaged 22.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 1.2 steals. He recorded 15 double-doubles. It marked the first double-double average of his career, albeit in a smaller sample. He ranked among the league’s top 10 in total rebounds since his return.
And yet, even as the production returned, the recovery never stopped.
The five-time All-NBA selection has consistently said his rehab is ongoing. As the Celtics prepared for Game 7, it caught up to him — stiffness in his left knee, the opposite leg from the one he injured in last year’s Eastern Conference semifinals, ultimately kept him out.
“I’m still in the window — I was in the window of return to play protocol, and there were just certain rules and a plan that ultimately that we had to stick by,” Tatum said. “It was tough, obviously, working as hard as I did to come back and to be available and for it to come to a Game 7, and not be able to be out there. I just keep saying it was unfortunate, and it’s tough to deal with, but it’s a plan that we have to stick to.”
Tatum was bracing for some sort of ailment to pop up, given his strenuous rehab and the fact that he was averaging 33.6 minutes per game since his return, which is what happened when the stiffness in his knee flared up.
“I just experienced some tightness back there,” he said. “It was just unfortunate timing, but I guess a little bit to be expected. I was away for 10 1/2 months, and then I came back, and I’m playing every other day, and I was playing 36 to 40 minutes. So it’s not unusual that something would come up. It was just kind of tough because rehab was just going so well the entire time. I guess it was inevitable at some point that I was going to have to deal with something. And it just kind of came at the worst possible time.”
It was a devastating blow for Tatum, who spent the first 62 games of the season on the sideline and said the injury was day-to-day. He added that he likely would have been available for the second-round series against the Knicks — the same opponent, and the same round, in which he suffered the Achilles injury in the first place.
“My recovery and comeback were going so well that how it ended, I didn’t think it was going to end that way,” Tatum said. “It was just unfortunate. I worked really, really, really, really hard to come back in the fashion that I did and play at the level I was playing at. So for it to end the way it did was a tough pill to swallow.”
Still, despite having to sit out the final game, Tatum is proud of his return and of what he accomplished this season.
“I’m proud of the fact that I was able to prove to myself that I could play this game at a very, very high level,” Tatum said. “Even not being 100% of myself or what I’m capable of. Checking that box off mentally – because that was a question in my head, there were doubts of will I be able to be the same player? Will I be able to play at a high level after this injury? Now, I’ve proven it and showed that, even at 80-85% of myself.”
And after questioning whether he should return at all, Tatum said he’s now 100% certain he made the right choice.
“I’m very happy that I came back to be a part of his team,” he said. “To get back to doing what I love, to help us, give us a chance to compete for a championship, to prove to myself that I can get back to being the guy who I was, and hopefully better. And just to kind of defy what this injury kind of means, not necessarily from the standpoint of, like, ‘I’m great, look at what I was able to accomplish,’ but to give other guys hope that. Obviously, I don’t want anybody to have to go throught tearing their Achilles, but in the unfortunate event that it does happen, I can be sort of an inspiration of like, if you attack rehab a certain way, if you follow these guidelines, or do it a certain way, that it’s not like a career-ending injury, that you can’t come back, that you can be yourself, that you can be better, that it won’t take 18 months, that you can come back whenever it is right for you.
“So I’m happy and proud of the fact that I was able to do that. And, unfortunately, if somebody else has to deal with this, they can look at what I was able to do and have some hope and inspiration that it’s not what people used to think it was. You can come back from this and be who you were, and hopefully be better.”
