“There ain’t no way he should be getting so much heat” Stephen A. Smith believes Jayson Tatum has a lot to learn in his career


“There ain’t no way he should be getting so much heat” Stephen A. Smith  believes Jayson Tatum has a lot to learn in his career

Stephen A Smith on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown performance in game 6

Sports media personality Stephen A. Smith was often found encouraging Boston Celtics marquee Jayson Tatum for better performances in the NBA Finals. But after the conclusion of the same, he went on to praise the star for the production on the floor and sees a bright future for him in his relatively young NBA career.

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Golden State Warriors won the 2022 NBA championship at expense of the Boston Celtics. Eastern Conference Champions were a better performing team in their first 3 rounds of the 2022 playoffs, and in the finals, they did give some tough fight to the eventual champions. Boston’s Marquee star Jayson did play consistently over the period of games, but many targeted his “Impact” on the finals was not as impressive to put the team in winning position.

Sports TV Personality came to support Jayson Tatum and put aside any doubts people might have regarding Tatum’s abilities. He talked about positive and negative aspects of Celtics’ forward’s game and also compared his 1st finals performances with some of the elite players from the past  

Jayson Tatum gave the Boston Celtics a shot at the Championship and will get better

Jayson Tatum
Jayson Tatum

Eastern Conference Finals MVP Jayson Tatum ended up receiving a lot of criticism for his failure to impact games in the NBA Finals. Interestingly, he was the same athlete who received praises for his production on the East side of the league. He did manage to win over experienced stars like Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Butler – both offensively and defensively.

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But it was the finals where Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum had rough games. As per stats, he could not be impactful as his team went down to the Golden State Warriors. Ever since then, Tatum has been criticized for his poor outings. But Stephen A Smith putting his trust n the 24-year-old star right from the start gave him some support.

Smith put forward some of Tatum’s numbers and said that the young star has a lot more to learn in his career. While talking about Tatum, Smith reminded everyone about his all-around performances in the playoffs. He said, “There ain’t no way he should be getting all this heat, all of it, but some of it, of course. Now, did Jayson Tatum under-perform in the finals, did he disappear at times on the big stage? Without question y’all, without a doubt. Shot just 31.6% on two-pointers in the series, the worst by any player with at least 75 field goal attempts in the last 60 finals.

Accepting the negative aspects of Tatum’s NBA Finals performance Smith added, “That’s bad dammit, that’s bad, he also had a record 100 turnovers this postseason, that’s really bad. But there ain’t no way we should be burying this kid just yet.”

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Tatum averaged 21.5 points, 7 assists, and 6.8 rebounds in six final games. Maybe for an average NBA star, those are great numbers, especially in the finals games. But Tatum is not an average star, for him, it is a paltry return. He ended up receiving a lot of criticism for his failure to impact a game just like Stephen Curry did for the opposition.Stephen A Smith though was adamant about write-off Tatum just yet. He believes that one series does not define his talent and that he has a bright future ahead of him.

Adding to his views, NBA Analysts gave examples of some of the biggest stars in NBA History and compared their 1st finals performances. Smith said, “Don’t forget in Larry Bird’s first Finals, he scored eight points in two different games, in Isaiah Thomas’ first Finals, he had two games with just 10 points. Had another game with seven turnovers and how’d they turn out all the greats have growing pains. I am not ready to say Jayson Tatum is a player anywhere near their level but he’s only 24, 6-9 with a mid-range game. All that stuff he’s got time to look in the mirror and reflect on this. He can grow from it and get better.”

Jayson Tatum
Jayson Tatum

To be compared with those stars would certainly be an honor for Tatum, but he would love to be drawn in comparison for positive aspects of the game. A strong believer in Mamba Mentality, Tatum will defiantly bounce back from the 2022 performances and we will see better results in the coming future.

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