Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum spoke about his ongoing Achilles rehab on Wednesday.
Thursday will mark the 100th day since Tatum underwent surgery to repair his ruptured Achilles tendon, which happened during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the New York Knicks on May 12.
Tatum was in the middle of a legendary performance against the Knicks when the injury took place. He had 42 points, eight boards, four assists, four steals and two blocks with 2:58 left in the fourth quarter when he tore his Achilles diving for a loose ball. Tatum had surgery the following morning in New York City, the expediency of which many reports have indicated has contributed to his outstanding recovery thus far.
Tatum is widely expected to miss most or all of the 2025-26 season, and his fellow Celtics are dealing with severely diminished expectations in his absence.
It’s tough to stay at the same level as a team when you’re without a four-time All-NBA First Team performer in his prime, that’s for sure.
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Tatum was a rare model of superstar durability up until May 12, appearing in at least 72 regular-season games in six out of his eight seasons, with the other two seasons amounting to 64 games played and 66 games played, respectively. Game 4 also marked Tatum’s incredible 121st career playoff game. He’s still just 27 years old, and some analysts have speculated that all of the games and insane availability ultimately took their toll.
With all that said, Tatum is expected to heal fully and return to an NBA court with a decade-plus of his career ahead of him. The outlook for Tatum and the Celtics remains bright, even if rehab has been a slow grind for the star.
On Wednesday, fans were treated to a short message from Tatum about how his rehab is going, via the official X account for the NBA.
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“Rehab is tedious, man,” Tatum said, smiling. “It’s six days a week. It’s starting to get a little bit better. I’m out of the boot now. Better days ahead; we’re just trying to take it one day at a time.”
Tatum also specified that the initial period of rehab was the toughest.
“You’ve got to be resilient that first six weeks,” Tatum said. “(That was) probably the toughest six weeks of any point in my life. Just had to accept it and realize, you know, it happened. Now I got to do everything in my power to, you know, get back to who I was, and get back to playing.”
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Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and team president Rich Gotham have both been clear in their remarks to the press that Boston has no timetable for Tatum’s return to basketball activities.