BOSTON — Everyone has something to say about Jayson Tatum’s return to the court. That’s the reality of the world we live in, after all: basketball is consumed by millions of fans worldwide, and the media’s job is to discuss the most hot-button topics, sometimes ad nauseam.
Tatum gets it worse than most: he plays for the Celtics, on one of the brightest stages in basketball, and in a city where athletes’ every moves are especially-scrutinized. He’s long been one of the sport’s best players. And, he’s coming back from what’s widely regarded as one of the worst injuries in basketball. So, it’s no surprise that his rehab and return has been one of the biggest stories in the NBA this season.
As a member of the media, I’ve had to speculate about, talk about, and write about Tatum’s journey back to basketball for more hours than I could possibly count. I recognize the irony of a media member sharing this message, but I’ll share it anyway:
Now is not the time to scrutinize Jayson Tatum’s on-court play.
That’s not because he can’t handle the scrutiny; he can, and he knows it’s a part of the job. But, it’s because dissecting his every move — his shooting numbers, his efficiency, his usage — completely loses sight of the big picture.
The big picture is this: Tatum tore his Achilles tendon last May and returned to the floor less than 10 months after suffering the injury. He’s been back on the court for less than three weeks. The choice to re-acclimate (and, unavoidably struggle) in the public eye was a brave one, And, though it’s not unheard of to do so, it’s also very uncommon for a player of his caliber to return as quickly as he did.
Take a look at three other former NBA All-Stars who suffered the same injury in 2025: Dejounte Murray (injured in January), Damian Lillard (injured in April), and Tyrese Haliburton (injured in June). Lillard and Haliburton were immediately ruled out of the 2025-2026 season, while Murray rehabbed for 13 months — nearly four more than Tatum — before returning to the floor.
Tatum did not give himself that same grace; he opted to work tirelessly to lace up for the Celtics this season, knowing that a playoff run was ahead. A part of why he was able to pull that off is because, by all accounts, he has a wonderful training and medical staff around him — Celtics trainer Nick Sang is the mastermind behind his rehab, and his surgeon, Dr. Martin O’Malley, is considered to be among the best in the world.
But a big reason why he is where he is is due to his courage. Tatum recognized the Celtics were in position to make a real run at a championship, and decided he’d give whatever he could to the team, even if it wouldn’t always be perfect. The Celtics held the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, and Tatum knew that he could come back and contribute, even if it wasn’t seamless right away.
Sunday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves wasn’t perfect. Tatum was scoreless in the first half — a rarity in his career — but found his rhythm in the third quarter, when he erupted for 13 points. He finished the game with 16 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals, converting on 6 of 16 field goal attempts.
Throughout the game, there were moments where the Celtics star was clearly frustrated, particularly early on. Asked whether he was giving himself grace during this stretch, he was honest.
“I didn’t know how this shit was going to be,” Tatum said. “It’s tough in the moment, right? You try not to think about it. You just want to be Jayson Tatum and feel like yourself again. I’m not superman, so it’s obviously gonna take some time. I think the next day, I can give myself a little more grace over certain things, but in the moment, it’s frustrating.”
That’s only human, and it’s commendable that Tatum is willing to give us a glimpse into his mindset as he learns to regain full trust in his body. At the same time, it’s our responsibility to recognize that the fact he’s even able to be out there is incredible and a testament of his work ethic — 7 months ago, he was in a boot, and now he’s dunking in an NBA game, battling against some of the greatest athletes on this planet.
His teammates recognize that he could have just taken the summer to get his on-court reps in in private. Jaylen Brown praised Tatum for making the decision to return to the Celtics as soon as he was able to.
“Him even wanting to come back is an unselfish act,” Brown said on the Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady podcast earlier this month, just a few days before Tatum made his debut. “[He’s] putting potentially his body on the line in order for us to accomplish something great.”
That’s exactly the way that we on the outside need to assess Tatum’s long road back to being Jayson Tatum.
Tatum’s rehab occurred behind closed doors, in private, in an empty gym, away from the gaze of the public. We didn’t see every struggle, only what he chose to include in his docuseries. But his on-court re-acclimation is taking place on national television (and it seems like every day, another one of the Celtics’ games is being flexed onto national TV).
He didn’t give himself much time to re-acclimate in private.
Tatum’s first real 5-on-5 scrimmage came on February 9th, when the Maine Celtics came down to Boston for a special game at the Auerbach Center. Less than one month later, he took the TD Garden parquet in a March 6th game against the Dallas Mavericks, in one of the most highly-anticipated games of the NBA season.
There have been some great moments since his return, and some struggles. He had a 12-point first quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers, displayed hot outside shooting against the Golden State Warriors last week, and showed some flashes of tremendous defense.
He’s been a beast on the glass — he’s already re-established himself as the Celtics’ leading rebounder — and some stretches where he’s displayed the playmaking chops that make him one of the most versatile players in the game.
“He’s giving the game what it needs,” Joe Mazzulla said last week of Tatum.
There have also been some stretches where Tatum has looked a bit tentative, where his timing and rhythm has been noticeably off. That could be a result of his own physical and mental hurdles, and it could also be a result of the team trying to figure out how to implement him best (Does he have the ball enough? Is he getting it in the right spots? It’s hard for me on the outside to say for certain, because I’m not privy to the conversations going on behind closed doors).
Tatum, for one, is letting it all come to him.
”I’m just taking it day-by-day. I had probably the worst injury you can have. I came back in 10 months and am getting better, [I have a] better feel each game. I want it to be perfect — First Team All-NBA Jayson, like that,” he said, snapping his finger. “I didn’t rush the rehab, so I can’t rush this. It’s all going to work out.”
For what it’s worth: Tatum is averaging 19.1 points — second-most on the team — and still drawing plenty of double-teams when the ball is in his hands. Yes, his efficiency is down; he’s shooting 38.8% from the field and 29.3% from three. But the sample on those numbers is so small, that, in my view, they are pretty much irrelevant.
His usage rate is down from last season, but not by as much as you’d think — last year, Tatum’s usage was a 31.1%, this year’s it’s slightly dipped to 30.2%. Though it feels like a noticeable decline, he’s attempting 17.4 shots per game, only 0.4 fewer than his career averages.
And, while in totality, he hasn’t looked exactly like pre-injury Jayson Tatum yet, the most encouraging thing is that, in spurts, he has. Those moments, those plays where he does fully look like himself? He points them out to Sang, one of his closest friends and confidants, for reference.
“There’s a lot of things I talk to Nick about, just things that I notice throughout a game — certain plays, certain moments of contact, explosion, attacking, getting downhill, the pace and speed of certain plays that just felt really normal, felt really good, or I didn’t think about it at all,” he said. “Just finding more and more moments of those from game to game — that gets me really excited.”
The NBA playoffs are less than a month away. And, Tatum will continue to ramp up his minutes and play in the days ahead. He’ll do so in the public eye, where every missed shot is at risk of becoming the front story on ESPN, where every sigh and emotion will be dissected be viewers at home.
He knew that would be part of the deal, and he opted to return anyways, even though his first five months of 5-on-5 scrimmaging could have occured in private. He made the courageous decision to return anyways, because he’s a competitor. Because he loves basketball. Because he knows he can elevate this Celtics team even further.
For now, he’s leaning on those around him — his mom, his 8-year-old son Deuce, his medical staff — as he continues to publicly work through what’s undoubtedly been the biggest hurdle in his basketball career.
“That’s the first time I went through something like this,” Tatum said. ”It’s been a long time — a long time before I could shoot a basketball, before I could walk.”