Celtics star Jayson Tatum has explained his journey before the 2017 draft and how he felt cut that the Lakers didn’t even give him a look in.
“I was in LA, the Celtics had the No.1 pick at the time. They came to watch me in Phoenix. So Phoenix was four. So, I worked out for all of them, they came, watched me everybody was raving about the workout,” the Celtics star said on Club 520 podcast. “But then somebody, I ain’t going to say his name, but somebody from the Celtics front office was like ‘Yo one of the best workouts I’ve seen’. He was like ‘Good luck in your career but you know we got the No.1 pick. We probably not going to pick you’. At that time I was like damn.”
Tatum was dealing with the news from the Celtics, as well as the fact the purple and gold paid him absolutely no mind.
“…For me, I grew up a Kobe fan,” JT said. “Like, I always wanted to play for the Lakers. So for them to have the No. 2 pick and it was like they didn’t even- it wasn’t even a thought that I was going to get drafted – that was kind of devastating. So, I never worked out for the Lakers. They never came to watch me work out.”
Boston wanted to bring Tatum back for another workout ahead of the draft, but it took some convincing from his Duke coach at the time Mike Krzyzewski.
“I remember Coach K was like, ‘Yo, Boston wants to have you for a second workout. You should go,’” Tatum recalled. “I’m like, ‘Coach, they just came off the Eastern Conference Finals. They got a veteran team, I’m probably not gonna play. I don’t wanna go.’ And he was raving about Brad Stevens. He was like, ‘Brad’s one of the best coaches in the league, just go for another workout.’
“And I remember, I went up to Boston like three days before the draft. I had another workout. I didn’t know where I was getting drafted until they called my name. But, you know, the rest is history, and it all worked out.”
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