Midway through the fourth quarter in Game 4 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum drove left, split the defense and muscled home a layup, tying Larry Bird and John Havlicek for the most 40-point playoff games in franchise history. The prime of his career had just begun.
This was the next Celtics legend, scripting his legacy in real time for the NBA’s defending champions.
Writing that last part in the past tense is hard but now necessary, as only a few minutes later Tatum ruptured his right Achilles tendon while chasing a loose ball late in a 121-113 loss to the New York Knicks. The Celtics now trail the Knicks in the best-of-seven set, 3-1, but the outcome on the court is secondary.
As teammate Al Horford told reporters, “The loss is the loss. More importantly, you know, it’s Jayson that I’m worried about. And just making sure that I’m there for him. That’s my priority. … It’s very concerning, just from, you know, the care that I have for him. What he means to us. What he means to Boston.”
The Celtics announced the results of Tatum’s MRI on Tuesday. We have no idea what becomes of Tatum’s prime or these Celtics, but the answers to both are now even darker than if they had just trailed a series.
For Tatum this is a yearlong recovery that will likely cost him all of next season in addition to the remainder of these playoffs. He could return for the 2026-27 campaign. In what capacity nobody knows.
We think we know based on the recovery of Kevin Durant, whose slender frame and highly skilled scoring repertoire are close facsimiles to Tatum’s. Durant tore his right Achilles tendon at age 30 in the 2019 NBA Finals, missed the entire next season and returned to play 35 games of the 2020-21 season, when he was a superstar again for another serious contender in the playoffs. His offensive production has not faltered.
Whether Durant has ever again been 100% of his previous self is a matter of debate. The injury left us feeling like he was closer to the end of his career than the beginning, and that feeling was probably right.
Tatum is 27 years old, around the time most basketball players are at the peak of their powers. Having never before missed more than 10 games of any season, he likely will miss his entire next campaign and probably cannot participate in the playoffs again until he is 29. Thirty is suddenly around the corner, and we cannot predict how anyone ages into his career, especially someone on a surgically repaired Achilles.
It just so rarely happens that one of the greats is taken from the game on the precipice of his absolute prime. And make no mistake: Tatum is one of the greats. The future Hall of Famer will make a fourth straight All-NBA first team over a span in which he has averaged a 28-8-5 on 46/36/84 shooting splits — production matched only by all-timers. He has scored more playoff points than anyone ever at his age. He was doing things we had never seen before and still had plenty of runway left to add to that legacy.
It is shorter now, and the heights he can reach as a result are lower, too. How much so we do not know.
We also do not know what the Celtics will look like when Tatum returns to them. They have been contenders since the moment he entered the league, reaching the conference finals in his rookie season. He made the NBA Finals in 2022 and won it all in 2024. He has been to the conference finals in five of his previous seven seasons, and the Celtics had a decent shot to make a run at a sixth had he stayed healthy.
That possibility seems beyond remote now, as the Celtics face a 3-1 deficit. There was already discussion of slashing payroll at season’s end. As currently constituted, the roster could cost half a billion dollars next season, including luxury taxes. The only chance of Boston’s new ownership group paying that much in salary was a repeat championship and the chance to chase a three-peat. That hope is all but gone now.
Let us be clear: The Boston Celtics are not championship contenders without Jayson Tatum.
This probably means the end of a Boston tenure for Jrue Holiday or Kristaps Porziņģis — or both. Al Horford will be 40 years old when Tatum returns to the lineup. And what becomes of Jaylen Brown, whose career has been tied to Tatum’s as co-stars of this latest entry into Celtics lore? He will have his shot to lead the team now, at least for one season, but the chance to stack titles is on hold … if not gone.
How Celtics executive Brad Stevens builds his team in Tatum’s absence is anyone’s guess, but the roster Tatum returns to will be lesser than what it is now. He will have a heavier burden to carry then. That is the next chapter of his legacy in Boston, for better or worse. And it could not look much worse right now.
Midway through the fourth quarter in Game 4 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum drove left, split the defense and muscled home a layup, tying Larry Bird and John Havlicek for the most 40-point playoff games in franchise history. The prime of his career had just begun.
This was the next Celtics legend, scripting his legacy in real time for the NBA’s defending champions.
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Writing that last part in the past tense is hard but now necessary, as only a few minutes later Tatum ruptured his right Achilles tendon while chasing a loose ball late in a 121-113 loss to the New York Knicks. The Celtics now trail the Knicks in the best-of-seven set, 3-1, but the outcome on the court is secondary.
As teammate Al Horford told reporters, “The loss is the loss. More importantly, you know, it’s Jayson that I’m worried about. And just making sure that I’m there for him. That’s my priority. … It’s very concerning, just from, you know, the care that I have for him. What he means to us. What he means to Boston.”
The Celtics announced the results of Tatum’s MRI on Tuesday. We have no idea what becomes of Tatum’s prime or these Celtics, but the answers to both are now even darker than if they had just trailed a series.
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For Tatum this is a yearlong recovery that will likely cost him all of next season in addition to the remainder of these playoffs. He could return for the 2026-27 campaign. In what capacity nobody knows.
We think we know based on the recovery of Kevin Durant, whose slender frame and highly skilled scoring repertoire are close facsimiles to Tatum’s. Durant tore his right Achilles tendon at age 30 in the 2019 NBA Finals, missed the entire next season and returned to play 35 games of the 2020-21 season, when he was a superstar again for another serious contender in the playoffs. His offensive production has not faltered.
Whether Durant has ever again been 100% of his previous self is a matter of debate. The injury left us feeling like he was closer to the end of his career than the beginning, and that feeling was probably right.
Tatum is 27 years old, around the time most basketball players are at the peak of their powers. Having never before missed more than 10 games of any season, he likely will miss his entire next campaign and probably cannot participate in the playoffs again until he is 29. Thirty is suddenly around the corner, and we cannot predict how anyone ages into his career, especially someone on a surgically repaired Achilles.
It just so rarely happens that one of the greats is taken from the game on the precipice of his absolute prime. And make no mistake: Tatum is one of the greats. The future Hall of Famer will make a fourth straight All-NBA first team over a span in which he has averaged a 28-8-5 on 46/36/84 shooting splits — production matched only by all-timers. He has scored more playoff points than anyone ever at his age. He was doing things we had never seen before and still had plenty of runway left to add to that legacy.
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It is shorter now, and the heights he can reach as a result are lower, too. How much so we do not know.
We also do not know what the Celtics will look like when Tatum returns to them. They have been contenders since the moment he entered the league, reaching the conference finals in his rookie season. He made the NBA Finals in 2022 and won it all in 2024. He has been to the conference finals in five of his previous seven seasons, and the Celtics had a decent shot to make a run at a sixth had he stayed healthy.
That possibility seems beyond remote now, as the Celtics face a 3-1 deficit. There was already discussion of slashing payroll at season’s end. As currently constituted, the roster could cost half a billion dollars next season, including luxury taxes. The only chance of Boston’s new ownership group paying that much in salary was a repeat championship and the chance to chase a three-peat. That hope is all but gone now.
Let us be clear: The Boston Celtics are not championship contenders without Jayson Tatum.
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This probably means the end of a Boston tenure for Jrue Holiday or Kristaps Porziņģis — or both. Al Horford will be 40 years old when Tatum returns to the lineup. And what becomes of Jaylen Brown, whose career has been tied to Tatum’s as co-stars of this latest entry into Celtics lore? He will have his shot to lead the team now, at least for one season, but the chance to stack titles is on hold … if not gone.
How Celtics executive Brad Stevens builds his team in Tatum’s absence is anyone’s guess, but the roster Tatum returns to will be lesser than what it is now. He will have a heavier burden to carry then. That is the next chapter of his legacy in Boston, for better or worse. And it could not look much worse right now.
