Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum hasn’t slammed the door shut on a possible return during the upcoming season after rupturing his Achilles tendon last May.
“I haven’t said I’m not playing this season,” Tatum said on ESPN’s ‘First Take’ Tuesday morning. “The most important thing is a full recovery – not rushing it at all. But also, I don’t go to rehab six days a week for nothing.”
Tatum tore his right Achilles in Game 4 of the 2025 Eastern Conference Semifinals, and underwent surgery within 24 hours, in New York. While the Indiana Pacers officially ruled out Tyrese Haliburton as he recovers from his own Achilles tear sustained during Game 7 of the NBA Finals, there’s been no specifics provided regarding Tatum’s timeline. He’s been out and about in New England this summer, attending Patriots training camp and Sunday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, in addition to a philanthropic event in Rhode Island last month.
Tatum shared he’s found support from Dejounte Murray and Damian Lillard, two NBA stars who also suffered ruptured Achilles tendons last season.
“I text Dame and Dejounte all the time, because they’re ahead of me. Like, ‘Yo, what are you doing now? What are your workouts looking like now? We’re all in the same boat,” he said.
His own recovery has been a challenging process.
“It’s tough to pinpoint what is the hardest part. It’s phases. The first phase is accepting that this happened. I was in disbelief for about two weeks,” he shared, on ‘First Take.’ “And the other tough part is, ever since I was a kid, I could always envision myself getting drafted, winning the championship, having my own shoe, the cover of [NBA]2K – all the things. This was the first time I couldn’t envision – I was sitting in my mom’s house with my foot elevated and it was hard to envision playing basketball. It was hard to envision walking up steps. That was defeating in that moment. And things like that, there were some low moments throughout this journey.”
The 6-time All-Star and 4-time All-NBA player maintains high expectations for the Celtics.
“With being part of the organization of the Celtics, there’s a standard that we play to, that we uphold. Regardless of who we have in the lineup, who’s part of the team, who’s not. There’s a sense of pride that we have when we put that uniform on, and we always are competing to win a championship. That standard will not change,” he said.