After ‘stealing’ from Kyrie Irving, Kobe, Tatum ready to be ‘that guy’

Drawing on his connections to superstars like kobe Bryant and Kyrie Irving, Boston’s Jayson Tatum is ready to make his own leap to superstardom.

There are advantages to being a reporter at the NBA’s Disney restart.

For one, it puts you in the very small group of media able to do in-person interviews with NBA players whose season hasn’t ended, and The Athletic’s Shams Charania leveraged his proximity to such players to steal a few minutes in a hallway to interview Boston Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum.

Fresh off his Game 1 win against the Raptors, the Missouri native revealed how he has been approaching the Celtics’ postseason.

“The more I play, the more I’m trying to understand the game within the game, especially in moments like that,” explained Tatum. “[Center Marc Gasol is] key to their team. I’m more and more aware.”

While he and the team may prefer to avoid the topic with most reporters, the Duke product admitted it was the failures of the prior season that have been driving this season’s successes, at least for Tatum.

“I had to prove myself to the outside world and to myself and show that I can be one of those top guys,” offered the former Blue Devil. “I knew I wanted to be that guy. I knew I had that in me. But not making the All-Star game last year and not playing as well as I wanted to in the playoffs, our team not having the success.”

“I felt like I put a lot of pressure on myself coming into the season with how last season finished,” he elaborated.

And despite how many Celtics fans may feel about former Boston point guard Kyrie Irving, the Celtics nascent superstar stays in close contact with his fellow Duke alumnus.

In fact, he credits the mercurial guard with contributing to his growth as a player.

“Ky told me this is my time and to embrace that role and be that dude,” Tatum explained.

“Ky is like my big brother,” said the third-year swingman. “We still talk to this day, and we’ve talked a few times this playoffs. He always encourages me to be special. Having that relationship with him and having somebody like him in my ear at a young age, it means a lot.”

The young star likes to borrow from the players he’s come to consider peers, mentors, and friends — though with his own imprint on the remix, as it were.

“You can steal from a lot of different guys — Ky, Kobe [Bryant] — but you have to do it your own way,” Tatum suggested.

“I’m one of the youngest guys on this team but I know the role I have. I know how these guys view me and they value what I have to say. I want the best for everybody and I just want to win. I’ve been more outspoken this year.”

For a player who said he wanted to score over 20, make the All-Star team and carry the Celtics to the NBA Finals at the start of the 2019-20 season, that last bit is an understatement.

But the rising star of Boston has delivered on two of the three, and has come within six wins of the Finals already.

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