Brandon Jennings says Jayson Tatum is the softest superstar in Celtics history; Tatum fires back

[GSWFan1994]

Via MassLive

Jayson Tatum addresses Brandon Jennings barb after Kings loss

BOSTON — One day after firing back against Brandon Jennings “soft” comments on Instagram, Jayson Tatum struggled through one of his worst performances of the year Friday night. The Celtics All-Star piled up a season-high eight turnovers while scoring just 15 points as Boston’s offense sputtered in the second half in a 114-97 loss to a red-hot Sacramento Kings squad.

After the setback, Tatum spoke publicly the first time after the back and forth with Jennings after the point guard had some pointed comments about the superstar.

“Yo, is he the softest Boston Celtics superstar ever?” Jennings asked in an appearance on Gilbert Arenas podcast. “… What do we know about Boston Celtics players? Like anybody that put on a Boston Celtics jersey from the 80s on up. They what? They cutthroat right? If you’re so tough, why you didn’t get Finals MVP last year? Why you let your running mate (Jaylen Brown) do it? If you so tough. If you so all this. Why you didn’t get it? Why you didn’t get it?”

Tatum hears plenty of criticism from all corners of the internet but rarely addresses any remarks head-on like he did with Jennings.

“I don’t know,” Tatum said when asked why he responded this time. “I had some time yesterday.”

When pressed about whether the comments irked him, Tatum remained coy.

“I wasn’t mad,” he said. “I just had some time yesterday.”

Tatum is on the verge of making his sixth consecutive All-Star game after winning an NBA title but did not expect barbs coming his way to slow down.

“Surprised? No. I think it comes with being one of the best players in the league,” Tatum said of the criticism. “And the more you accomplish, the more it gives people an opportunity to nitpick at things. If I wasn’t who I was or had a certain status, people would probably not talk about me as much. But I’m not the first superstar in league history to deal with this. It comes with it.”

Joe Mazzulla has tried to help his Celtics stars keep perspective by showing Tatum and Jaylen Brown how wrong the media has been about certain NBA stars over the course of their career.

“I guess it helps seeing it to put things into perspective,” Tatum said. “It’s (not) something that I didn’t already know. At the end of it, you can look at some of the ridiculous takes people on TV have said about some of the best players to play this game that didn’t necessarily age well. When you see some of the comments that they made about certain guys and how their careers turned out, you just gotta laugh. It’s just part of the journey.”

With the Celtics facing their first patch of adversity on the court for an extended stretch in the past two years (8-7 in last 15 games), more eyes will remain on Tatum to see how he leads this team in response. He didn’t look for any excuses after the team’s worst loss of the year.

“I don’t want to blame why we lost today on it being a trap game,” Tatum declared. “Everybody plays 82 games, everybody travels, everybody plays back to backs. So don’t really want to use that as an excuse. Just, observation, we got to be better in all areas of the game, … we just down the line, everybody, we just got to be better.”

[Devilanche]

I don’t think Jayson is as good as the Celtics probably believes he is , but he’s far and away better than Brandon Jennings . Should have just ignore the noise.

[og15]

Why is not getting finals MVP being soft?

What's the connection there?

[badpotato]

BJ was talking about Garnett too I guess.

[Bergmaniac]

LOL, Brandon Jennings was born in 1989, him talking as if he has some great knowledge of Celtics history is pretty funny.

And Bird also didn't win Finals MVP when he won his first title, I guess he was soft too.

[JXL]

I think any opinions Brandon Jennings might have should be kept to himself and not on another idiot PG's podcast like Gilbert Arenas.

Tatum validated his career with a championship. What have they done again?

[JustBuzzin]

I once was Tatum's toughest critic. But once you win that championship you can no longer question that player.

Time to move on from the Tatum slander. He got that ring bow down and kiss the ring peasants!

[Anderson Hunt]

I don’t think Jayson is as good as the Celtics probably believes he is , but he’s far and away better than Brandon Jennings . Should have just ignore the noise.

Your point has zero relevance to the criticism that was levied. This is classic deflection.

[Anderson Hunt]

In the postseason, is Tatum the best player on his own team?

That's the question.

[bkkrh]

Just shows how dumb and uninformed the whole Gil's Arena crew is to not simply bring up the fact that Cedric Maxwell won the first Finals MVP of their 80s titles over Bird and Parish. So I guess Bird, Tatum and Parish are all equally soft .

[srhcan]

I dont agree with Brandon Jennings because Jason Tatum is not a superstar; he is a star.

[brackdan70]

Jennings was one of the most disappointing players ever. Is he still salty about peaking at 22and being irrelevant at 26?

As far as Tatum being the softest Celtics super star…is he softer thang Bird….I think most everyone is. Softer than KG, yeah probably. Softer than Pierce…probably at times. Russell, Cousy, Havlicek ?
It’s a weird comment. What does soft mean anyway?
Tatum has lead his team to the conference finals or beyond 5/7 years in the league. He has shown up big in big games and has won games in other ways when his shot wasn’t falling. If that’s soft, I’ll take it.

[tsherkin]

So, whatever one thinks about Jayson Tatum... Brandon Jennings is a moron, and no one should listen to him.

Others have noted guys who've not won the Finals MVP, that's fine. Tatum shot terribly in the Finals but continued to do other things. And he isn't the first guy that's happened to, either.

Ultimately, the important takeaway here is that Jennings really needs to stay quiet.

[brackdan70]

I dont agree with Brandon Jennings because Jason Tatum is not a superstar; he is a star.

Pretty high bar for super star. What does it take to make your list? Being an MVP?

[tsherkin]

I dont agree with Brandon Jennings because Jason Tatum is not a superstar; he is a star.

Pretty high bar for super star. What does it take to make your list? Being an MVP?

It should be a high bar. Superstars are rare.

[Anderson Hunt]

I dont agree with Brandon Jennings because Jason Tatum is not a superstar; he is a star.

Pretty high bar for super star. What does it take to make your list? Being an MVP?

It should be a high bar. Superstars are rare.

The line between star and superstar is moot because time and time again it's been proven you can win championships with stars just fine.

[Hornet Mania]

If Tatum is assumed to be a superstar he probably is the softest one in Celtics history, only one you could argue below him is KG if you want to say he was always fake tough.

But I don't see why that particularly matters. This era is softer by design. More fouls are deemed flagrant, the league brings the hammer down on fighting, etc. If Tatum tried to play as rough as Bird or Russell he'd get ejected.

The Finals MVP comment is also pointless. He didn't miss out on Finals MVP because he was soft, he missed out because he shot the ball poorly and Jaylen Brown crushed it that series.

[tsherkin]

Pretty high bar for super star. What does it take to make your list? Being an MVP?

It should be a high bar. Superstars are rare.

The line between star and superstar is moot because time and time again it's been proven you can win championships with stars just fine.

It isn't moot, it's relevant. You don't see non-superstar titles very often. It's possible, but it requires a fairly off-putting amount of distributed talent. Which Boston has, of course. But if you look at the last, like, 45 years, you basically look at the Bad Boy Pistons, the 04 Pistons and these Celtics as the titles won without a superstar. If that's your plan, good luck, you know what I mean? The Celtics are in excellent position, and Tatum of course is a very good player regardless of specific label. But it's not a mappable strategy for most. The screaming majority of titles in NBA history have been built around a dominant superstar.

So Boston doesn't care, which is cool. They're winning. The team is excellent, they're coming off a title and competing for another. So Celtics fans have no need to give a crap, certainly. But in the context of these specific comments, yeah, it's relevant. If you put him on another team, Tatum would struggle to produce what's necessary for a title under lesser circumstances because he isn't that level of player. And his individual performance is also well below what we see from real superstars. There's no shame in that, there are but a handful of such guys in the league at any given time. But it is relevant when we discuss players.

[JRoy]

I remember when the Bucks had Jennings, Gooden and Maggette at the same time. That is a lot of dumb.

Tatum is a champion, he shouldn’t care what a bottom feeder like Jennings thinks.

[JayMKE]

Pretty soft answer to being call soft but who cares tho? Tatum might be soft but has a ring, just don’t pretend he’s Kobe.