dpFast forward to this week at The Citadel, Tatum is working with assistant coach Tony Dobbins on post-ups and pick-and-roll jumpers. The burst is there. The confidence is back. The role is larger with the departure of Jaylen Brown, and Tatum said he is more reflective on those day-to-day experiences now that he’s in Year 10.
He is approaching the second half of his career and nothing is promised to high-usage NBA players when they hit 30. Very few stories turn out to be as illustrious as LeBron James or even Tatum’s hero, Kobe Bryant, who each logged two decades in the game.
“It’s a totally different perspective,” Tatum said of this training camp. “Last year was really tough for me. I kind of remember these days of training camp [last year] and I would be in the weight room the whole time watching the team practice. It was just tough to digest and go through it.
“So now being on this side and knowing what it felt like to have to watch the whole time. It’s a different level of appreciation of being a part of everything and the game that I love with my teammates, it’s a different type of joy that I have now than I did my first eight seasons.”
That joy has spread to the golf course, where Tatum has become an avid golfer, organizing outings with his teammates, including a nine-hole stop at Bulls Bay Golf Club on Monday. The coherent theme of training camp has been galvanizing off the floor, enjoying teammates’ company and capitalizing on time away from Boston.
It appears the shock and disbelief from the Brown trade has dissipated, replaced by the embrace of this new reality with the likes of Paul George, Mitchell Robinson, and Mike Conley. Tatum is at the head of this campaign to bond, knowing how critical chemistry will be to having a better than projected season.
“It’s really allowed us even more of an opportunity to connect with each other: team dinners, team activities, watch football together, golf, practice,” Tatum said of the stretch in South Carolina. “Just another really good opportunity to get to know each other. We can still hang out in Boston but everybody got their lives, kids. Now we’re in a different environment, a different city and it’s just us. It gives us an opportunity to get to know each other better.”
Tatum got an opportunity to share court time with George over the past 10 days and that combination will be critical to the Celtics’ success. Tatum said last month that he was a George fan during his younger days and adopted some of the nine-time All-Star’s moves. Their first noted one-on-one clash on the floor occurred on Nov. 20, 2019, when a third-year Tatum traveled to Los Angeles to play George’s Clippers.
With 13.1 seconds left in regulation, Tatum took a dribble handoff from Marcus Smart, drove right, gave a shoulder to George, who fell on his backside and then drained a tying 3-pointer.
While it appeared Tatum stepped on George’s foot, the two had different perspectives of the play.
“Yeah I stepped on his foot,” Tatum said. “Inadvertently, I didn’t try to. I stepped on his foot when I made the move. I remember that was the first time Kawhi [Leonard] and PG played together that season. I just remember it was a fun game, overtime game. I just learned a lot from it.”
When asked about the crossover, George offered all credit to Tatum.
“No [he didn’t step on my foot], I can’t take that away from him,” George said. “He got me on a good play. He was strong. I didn’t understand how strong he was. So he had me off balance, and how strong his body is, it knocked me back. And so I can’t take nothing away from that. That was just a great play, and that was his arrival.”
Tatum vividly recalled that game, it’s significance and how it elevated his NBA status. And it’s those moments he cherishes more since the game was briefly taken away from him.
“I just remember it like a big-time game,” he said. “That was my first time I made All-NBA, first time I made All-Star that year. I very much felt like I was coming into my own that year when I was coming in to the level where I could compete with the other best players in the world.”
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.
