Except for the rarest of the rare, most NBA players have a ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moments where they realize that the game they are playing may be similar to one they played before, but it’s completely different at the exact same time. For Boston Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum, his NBA baptism came at the hands of LeBron James, in Tatum’s first-ever NBA game at the start of the 2017-18 season.
Tatum told the story of his nerves going into the game during an appearance on Showtime’s ‘All The Smoke’ podcast with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, which included Tatum shaking after LeBron James ran past him prior to tip-off.
“I ain’t get no sleep the night before the game, cause it was Kyrie’s first game coming back to Cleveland, we got a new team, it’s all this hype,” Tatum recalled. “I don’t think I’m nervous, we going through warm-ups and the Cavs aren’t on the court yet.I’m laying it up playing it cool. Then they come on the court and LeBron is the last one to come out and I see him run past me and I’m like ‘damn.’ I just start getting nervous, I start shaking. The first shot I ever took in a game, I set a screen for Ky, I slipped it, Ky gave me a slow pass and I thought I was wide open to get my first bucket and calm down. Then I don’t know where Bron came from and then he sent my shot into the fifth row. I didn’t score until the second half.”
Tatum has definitely learned a lot rather quickly since that first meeting. Later that season, he dunked on LeBron in a Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, although LeBron and the Cavs would eventually come out with the win.
Tatum and LeBron also had one of the more enjoyable duels this season back in February, which ended in LeBron giving Tatum a new nickname, ‘The Problem.”
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