Celtics’ Jayson Tatum: ‘We only hang NBA championship banners’
The Boston Celtics are at the doorstep of hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy with their young core group leading the charge.
Star forward Jayson Tatum sits at the forefront of the Celtics’ deep playoff push, placing significant pressure on him to guide the franchise to an NBA-record 18th championship.
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“We only hang NBA championship banners, right? 17 of them,” Tatum said via ESPN. “Some of the greatest players to ever play this game wore this uniform. All of us are honored to follow in their footsteps, the way they paved for us to live out our dream.
“Essentially, yeah, if you want to be one of the greats to put on this uniform, every great before you won a championship. That’s what we try to play for every single season. The expectations are obviously different here. It takes special players to be here and to be a part of an environment like that.”
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Boston remains one of the league’s marquee franchises, and they have possessed among the top teams over the last few seasons. That pressure has elevated another notch after their busy offseason to stack the roster even more by adding Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.
The Celtics were already led by one of the NBA’s top duos in Tatum and Jaylen Brown. All that placed a higher level of expectations ahead of Boston to vie for another championship. If the Celtics hope to reach the mountaintop, Tatum will need to play a significant factor to lift them to an NBA title.
