Listening to Jayson Tatum discuss his Achilles recovery sometimes conjures an image of a ‘Far Side’ cartoon, with a captive marking off days passed with tallies on the wall.
“I’m in a really good spot,” he said on the eve of training camp, but quickly discussed the timeline he’s been on. “It will be five months tomorrow. So how has it been? It’s been long. It’s been a long journey.”
Tatum was the first player to speak at Celtics Media Day. He walked up to the podium in full uniform, seemingly coming off of or prepared for his official photos. He sounded like a man both eager to return to normalcy, but well-aware of how far he’s come.
“You’re on crutches, and you have a scooter and boot. Then you drop one crutch, and drop both crutches. I think, at that point, the things you take for granted – walking around, my hands are free – that made me feel a little bit more normal. Getting out of the boot made all the difference,” he said.
Here's what's most interesting about Tatum's rehab process from his May Achilles rupture: suddenly, he's everywhere.
Tatum shared a 14-second video of himself going through a basketball workout on Sunday. With a smirk, he tells the camera at the end of the highlight reel that he’s “rusty as an [expletive].”
“It just felt really good to be on the court, dribbling the basketball and going through a workout. Just feeling like a basketball player again,” he said, about that stage of his progress.
On top of that he went through the full ESPN carwash last week. He wouldn’t share a date he holds as a goal to return to game action, but he was clear that he hasn’t been ruled out for the upcoming season.
Whether Tatum is trying to keep himself engaged day-to-day through a tedious recovery process, work up his own self-confidence after being at the lowest point in his resplendent basketball career, or act as the perfect partner for a pharmaceutical company – he’s presenting confidence.
Still, the message from all levels of the franchise, including Tatum himself, is that his health has to be the priority.
“There’s no pressure to return back any sooner than when I’m 100% healthy. No pressure from Brad, Joe, the team, the organization. The most important thing is that I’m 100% healthy whenever I do come back,” Tatum said.
We know very little about when or how Tatum will return.
Those are the big questions. They only ‘W’ he’ll provide is where.
“I don’t care who we play. It’s going to be a home game,” he said.
But until that mystery day, don’t expect Tatum to turn into a regular-season phantom the way injured athletes can sometimes be: they’re out of sight, out of mind as they get healthy. That’s just not how he’s operated thus far. If anything, Tatum has grounded himself in the Celtics facilities. It’s not just for show. He was haunting the halls of the Auerbach Center the day Bill Chisholm’s new ownership group held an official introductory press conference. Tatum wasn’t part of the ceremony. He’s just present. And for now, that’s the process.
“Being integrated and being around as much as I can still while rehabbing and getting myself right,” he said.
“Just try to look for bright days.”