NEW YORK — Only a few days have passed since Jayson Tatum went crashing down on the Madison Square Garden floor. Trainers rushed onto the court, the Boston Celtics superstar grimaced in pain, and after Brad Stevens helped him to the back halls, he was wheelchaired away. The next day, it was announced that he underwent successful surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles.
Fast forward to now, and the Celtics are still alive. A blowout win in Game 5 extended their second-round series against the New York Knicks to a sixth game, and now, they’re back in New York. But Tatum never left.
He had surgery the morning after he incident, a rapid turnaround for a procedure of that magnitude, and since then, he’s been recovering. And because of that, the Celtics’ Game 5 gave two reasons to look forward to the trip back—a Game 6 opportunity and a chance to visit Tatum.
“Yeah, it sucks to see someone like that go down who doesn't deserve it,” Hauser said at shootaround on Friday morning. “But he wouldn't want anything more than us to just keep winning. And we saw him yesterday. He seemed to be in good spirits. But yeah, definitely thinking about him and trying to get some wins for him.”
How is Jayson Tatum doing post-surgery?
Tatum has been staying at the team hotel in New York, and the Celtics were able to pop over to see him post-surgery.
“He was at the hotel, just chilling,” said Hauser.”
“He seems in good spirits. As good as he can be,” said Payton Pritchard.
And as the Celtics prepare for a second-straight season-deciding game, it was a joy to visit with the guy who helped lead them to this point.
“It was really good seeing him,” said Pritchard. “I mean, obviously, he's out of surgery. Seemed like he was in really good spirits and stuff. Obviously, he's probably about to be stir crazy for a while now, but it was just good. When you see one of your brothers, your teammates go through a situation like that, you just want to be there to comfort anything he needs.”
Yet as the basketball Boston is playing becomes more and more crucial, it didn’t come up at all during their visit with Tatum.
Tatum is a basketball fiend. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, a Monday-night-in-Charlotte observer, and one of the fleeting few who almost always refuse rest games. Basketball courses through his veins.
But in times like these, basketball is dead last on the checklist of importance.
“We didn't talk about basketball at all,” Pritchard said of the visit. “That stuff is bigger than basketball. It's just seeing how he is as a person, how he's feeling, and stuff, and the basketball side, we'll handle that. But just want to check in as a friend.”
What is Jayson Tatum's return timeline?
While there has been no clear return timeline revealed by the team, there has been plenty of speculation regarding when Tatum could be back on the floor.
According to Marc J. Spears, Tatum's dad said that the goal is to have him back on the court for Boston around the eight- or nine-month mark.
Meanwhile, according to Dr. Lou Soslowsky, who spoke with Noa Dalzell of CelticsBlog, the timeline could be anywhere from seven months to a year and a half.:
"Dr. Soslowsky said that the return to injury spans from anywhere between 7 months to a year and a half, and it’s nearly impossible at this point to determine which of those scenarios is most realistic. In a few months, Tatum and the Celtics will be able to assess where he’s at in his recovery and determine whether he’s in a position to make a push to return next season."