Jayson Tatum is not tipping his hand.
It doesn’t matter how many Celtics games NBC flexes into their primetime schedule or how heavily his docuseries on his recovery is promoted—Tatum is proving he might be as skilled a poker player as he is a basketball star.
“I do not have a [return] date,” he told reporters in Los Angeles on Saturday. “Like I said, I just take it one day at a time. I feel better than I did yesterday, and that’s most important.”
Yet the fact that Tatum is even talking may be the biggest tell of all. Players who are working toward a return are required to speak with the media every week once they resume practice—and Tatum did exactly that at the start of last week. He has now addressed reporters twice.
He’s still not dropping any bombshells. No matter how the questions are phrased, Tatum ducks, swerves, and sidesteps.
Maybe poker wasn’t the right analogy. Maybe it’s dodgeball.
“What does your body have to feel like for you to come back?”
“Uhhh, 100%.”
“Have you imagined what that would feel like, and how close do you feel like you are to that?”
“I mean, I know what 100% feels like. And when that time comes, I’ll be ready.”
“What percentage are you now?”
“Uhh, I don’t know yet.”
Even Tatum knows the script is getting old.
“I feel like I’m beating a dead horse,” he admitted. “Just taking it one day at a time. It’s very serious, the injury that I had. It’s a long journey, so for me it’s just a lot easier to just take it one day at a time and see how I progress.”
That’s a fair stance. The best way to coax any real insight out of him might be to ask about another NBA star battling the same injury.
Damian Lillard was ruled out for the season after suffering his injury before Tatum, putting him in a similar rehab timeline. Yet Lillard felt good enough to light up the three-point shootout at All-Star weekend, running from rack to rack and winning the whole thing.
“I know it probably just felt good to put a uniform on and feel normal,” Tatum said. “I’m certain it just kind of felt good to be out there again and obviously compete and win.”
That’s the key element here—and probably why Tatum isn’t rushing anything. He wants to step on the floor and feel normal again, to compete the way he’s used to competing. The Celtics can post photos of him looking like Jayson Tatum, and Ron Harper Jr. can say he looks like Jayson Tatum, but the only thing that matters is whether Tatum himself feels like Jayson Tatum.
Once the answer to that is yes, the conversation everyone has been waiting for can finally begin.
“Will you come back and play?”
“I think it’s just important that I worked this hard to just kind of get myself in a position where it could be a conversation,” he said. “I think we’ve done a really good job of that thus far.”