There will be many memories coming out the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend. There was Jaylen Brown paying homage to Dee Brown with a little help from Jayson Tatum and paying tribute to Terrence Clarke in the Slam Dunk Contest. In the mid-season classic on Sunday, Tatum started for the East and scored 20 points — not even close to the 55 he dropped last year to set the single-game scoring record on the way to MVP honors. Brown made a push with 36 for this year’s honor which eventually went to Damian Lillard.
Many will argue that the league’s showcase has lost its luster and that’s true, but I won’t argue that here. I’m sure a kid growing up today will go to bed tonight with all their favorite shots from the game keeping them up. Sadly, I’m past the wonder of it all. However, there was this moment:
When I saw this ten-second clip flash by on Twitter, it actually took me a second to register it. “Flashback” might be a better description. That handshake was not just a handshake between a Celtics legend and a legend-to-be, but cosmically, it was my 46-year-old self reaching out to my 10-year-old self. It gave me the same chills as the digitally-enhanced NBA on TNT NBA Forever teaser, but this was real life. Watching Larry Bird greet Jayson Tatum really signified how long I’ve loved this game, this team, and their rich history.
“It’s not something you take for granted. Only twenty-four of use get to be here every year. There’s 450-500 players in the league, so that’s a really big deal. It’s a special weekend. You got the best players in the world. A lot of retired guys come around and you get to see them,” Tatum said after practice on Saturday.
“It’s great for the fans. It’s great for your family. That’s my favorite part of the weekend, being able to bring my son obviously and my mom, seeing all the retired guys I grew up watching, getting to spend time with them.”
Before Sunday night, the closest Jayson Tatum got to Larry Legend was winning the inaugural award named after Bird back in 2022 when Tatum was named the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
But with the All-Star Game in Bird’s backyard this year, it provided the perfect opportunity for the two to actually meet in person. Bird, Julius Erving, and Adam Silver were in the East locker room before the game, but Tatum didn’t get a chance to introduce himself.
“I remember saying, ‘I’ve never met Larry Bird. I’ve never been in the same room as him.’ As crazy as that sounds, it’s never worked out,” Tatum said. But before tip-off, part of the Celtics PR staff spotted Bird and ran Tatum down.
“I got a chance to go meet him, tell him how much of an honor it was to meet him, and he told me that he was looking forward to meeting me. That was crazy to hear him say that. He was a lot taller than I thought he was. What he means to the game, what he means to the city of Boston and the Celtics — he’s the ultimate Celtic. It was an honor to meet him.”
I honestly can’t remember if Paul Pierce ever met Bird. If any readers recall the meeting, please mention it in the comments. It wouldn’t surprise if they didn’t. Bird doesn’t make a lot of public appearances and rarer still are his visits back to Boston. But if they had met, I’m not even sure it would have hit me as hard as Bird-Tatum did tonight. Twenty-one years separate Bird and Pierce in age, and another twenty-one between Pierce and Tatum. That’s 42 years between Bird and Tatum.
The moment lasted a mere ten seconds. There didn’t seem to be some big rah-rah speech about raising Banner 18 with probably just a simple exchange of pleasantries that one would expect between a 67-year-old and 25-year-old 19-year-old. For this fan, it sparked a perspective in me that I didn’t see coming, but certainly appreciate now. The theme of the weekend seemed to be growing the league and the game’s audience, whether that was Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu’s shootout or LCD glass floor at All-Star Saturday Night or Brown inviting online streamer Kai Cenat for one of his dunks.
“It’s for the kids,” I reminded myself and in the end, through one handshake, the NBA reminded me that I, too, was a kid once.
