Ready For Prime Time

He is a rookie starter and much is expected, yet as Jayson Tatum warms up with his teammates before his first NBA game, he appears impervious to the noise and the lights and the pulsating anticipation inside Quicken Loans Arena.

Jackie MacMullan

This is the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers—LeBron James’ house—and while Tatum is a teenage visitor, he prides himself on one particular basketball trait: He is rarely jittery on the basketball court.

I’ve played this game my whole life, Tatum thinks. This is what I do.

He playfully pokes the ball free from fellow Celtic Shane Larkin in the layup line. He launches smooth long-range jumpers in between conversations with his mentor, Kyrie Irving. As the minutes count down before the 2017 tip-off, the fans bellow as the Cavaliers sprint onto the floor. Derrick Rose, the former MVP, leads the charge. Trailing him is Dwyane Wade, the future Hall of Famer. Tatum doesn’t intend to gawk, but as he fixes his gaze on them, his mind wanders.

I wore both of their jerseys growing up, Tatum thinks to himself.

He waits, as the crowd does, for his childhood hero to emerge. James jogs out last, his lips pursed, his jaw set. Tatum searches for a hint of recognition, but James looks straight through him.

“He was so much bigger than I thought,” Tatum says. “I felt like a kid. I mean, I guess I was one. I was only 19. After that, he was the only thing on my mind. As long as I can remember, he’s been the best or one of the best in the league. And that’s when it hit me: ‘That’s LeBron. What am I doing out here?’”

The game unfolds at warp speed. Tatum has an open lane to the hoop and Irving fires the ball into him. Tatum reminds himself to go up strong but not too strong, then elevates with an ease that is initially comforting until … Ah! Too late! Lying in wait is James, who springs up and swats away Tatum’s first NBA offering like it’s an annoying gnat.

Tatum’s NBA career is exactly 69 seconds old. He’s certain this night can’t get any worse, but four minutes after that, teammate Gordon Hayward crumples to the floor, his ankle contorted grotesquely out of its socket, his season over.

Immediately, the Celtics need more from the rookie to hang with the Cavs. Immediately, it is too much. Tatum short-arms a layup. Wade blocks another of his shots. Tatum goes 0-for-5 from the floor in that first half, and his team, in shock from the gruesome injury to Hayward, trails by 16 points.

Justin Tatum winces as he witnesses his son falter. Jayson had been coached by his father from an early age to regroup in moments like this. When he was in fifth grade, Justin threw him into high school scrimmages with college-level talent. Jayson would fail—repeatedly—but eventually recover, then flourish. On this night, in an NBA forum, Justin believes the result will be the same.

“What I wanted to see,” Justin says now, “was for him to fall on his ass, then get back up and do his thing.”

Justin’s faith is rewarded: His son bounces back with 14 points and 10 rebounds in a 102-99 Celtics loss. Yet the LeBron block gnaws at Jayson. “You set me up,” he tells Irving after the game. Irving places his hand firmly on Tatum’s shoulder. “You should have dunked it,” he says. Tatum nods. He knows Irving is right.

“That,” he says, “was the last time I was nervous the rest of the season.”

THE CELTICS ARE the favorites to win the Eastern Conference this season, and Jayson Tatum’s trajectory is a significant reason for that optimism. The Celtics have emerged as a relatively conflict-free collection of rising stars, with Tatum and his uncommon poise representing the epitome of their potential.

The challenge will be how to continue his progression on a team with so many talented veterans who need shots too. Tatum is in a hurry to be great, but he might have to wait his turn on a roster that already features Irving and Hayward.

“He’s very composed,” teammate Al Horford says. “It’s weird to see someone that young pull that off.”

He was not born that way. Tatum’s unflappable demeanor has been cultivated by two vigilant parents, both college athletes, who raised Jayson separately but who were united in molding their son’s future. Yet even they could not have envisioned how quickly his maturation process would need to accelerate. In rapid succession, he was asked to become an integral part of a contending NBA lineup, became a father before his 20th birthday and now has to live up to the sophomore NBA hype that has landed him coveted endorsements that include Gatorade, NBA2K, Fanatics and Beats.