BOSTON — I remember May 12th like it was yesterday.
The night that Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles.
Inside the visiting locker room at Madison Square Garden, you could hear a pin drop. Sam Hauser sat on the floor with his face in his hands. Tatum’s mom, Brandy Cole, grabbed a slew of Tatum’s remaining items in the locker room in a hurry.
And Al Horford, Tatum’s self-proclaimed all-time favorite teammate, spoke sternly. Though no injury information had officially been announced, Horford’s eyes all but
confirmed the worst.
“It’s very concerning,” he said. “Just from the care that I have him, and what he means to us, what he means to Boston…” he trailed off.
At the postgame podium, Jaylen Brown searched for the words.
“There’s really not a lot to say,” he finally said after a few extended pauses, staring blankly ahead.
In a flash, a team that appeared on the cusp of another NBA title entered a summer of uncertainty. Offseason trades felt inevitable. Tatum’s health and future was in question.
And, perhaps the biggest question of all loomed large: what would this team even look like when Tatum finally returned?
“At the start of last year’s playoffs, we felt like we had a 3, 4, 5 year run with that team,” Tatum said on Friday night. “And it all changed in the moment.”
Ten months later, Tatum made his return
In recent weeks, The Return began to feel inevitable. Though Tatum never officially confirmed whether he’d definitively be coming back this season, his five-part docuseries began to unveil at a rapid pace, and did Amica commercials chronicling his comeback.
Tatum has said from the beginning of the year that he was not ruling out a return this season, but the only other information he disclosed was that his first game back would be at home. Friday night against the Dallas Mavericks was picture-perfect for a slew of reasons.
It was one of just handful remaining national television games at TD Garden. It was against fellow Duke star Cooper Flagg. And, it was against the very same franchise that Tatum and company defeated in the 2024 NBA Finals.
Before Friday’s game, the normally tight-lipped Joe Mazzulla said he always knew a return was inevitable.
“We always knew he was coming back this year,” Mazzulla said. “I knew that when he decided to have surgery within a 16-hour span.”
On my way to TD Garden, my Uber driver asked me what he should expect from Tatum in his return game, after 10 months of rehab.
In truth, I had no idea. Except for one January shootaround in Detroit, we in the media didn’t get to watch a whole lot of Tatum’s rehab. That appeared to be by design; the Celtics moved media availabilities to before shootarounds shortly after, and kept Tatum’s recovery behind closed doors as much as possible.
I did firmly believe one thing, though: Jayson Tatum wouldn’t come back unless he looked really good at practice.
And, by all accounts, that was the case.
“He looks like Jayson Tatum,” Ron Harper Jr. said last month at NBA All-Star Weekend, days after Tatum joined the Maine Celtics for a joint practice.
Though his timing was off to start, Tatum’s impact was felt from the moment he first laced up. The Celtics superstar found Neemias Queta on an alley-oop for the first bucket of the game, his first of 7 dimes in the ball game (tied for a game-high with Jaylen Brown). That Tatum-Queta connection was evident throughout the night.
“We had a little talk during the game, like, ‘Man, it’s our first time really playing together,” Tatum said of Queta. “It was just fun.”
For the first few minutes, every time Tatum touched the ball, the crowd roared. His teammates sat up straighter on the bench. Fans donning “O” fiended for Tatum’s first points — so much so, that it felt like those points were never going to come.
The loudest 5 second-quarter points ever
To say Tatum looked tight to start the game is an understatement. He missed his first six field goal attempts, came up short on a dunk attempt, airballed a three, and seemed on pace to go scoreless — at least in the first half of the ball game.
“I just felt really anxious,” Tatum said afterwards. “It’s been a long time coming just to get to this point. Nights and days, I dreamed about this moment and the anticipation, the crowd. It’s been 42 and a half weeks since I played an NBA game.”
Mazzulla subbed Tatum back in with just over two minutes to spare in the second quarter. That ended up being a brilliant move; he got his first points of the ball-game off of a putback dunk from a missed Payton Pritchard three.
TD Garden exploded into a raucous applause, and immediately, Tatum’s body language transformed. With renewed enthusiasm, he called for the ball on the next possession, en route to his first three-point makee of the night.
“I really was just kind of grateful,” Tatum said. “I had a real sense of gratitude, just being back on the floor and playing basketball again — it just kind of brought me back to everything I’ve been through in the last 10 months. The fact that I was able to even be out there today — it was like a really big win for me.
Tatum’s basketball trainer, Drew Hanlen, sat courtside and jumped to his feet after Tatum’s three-point swish, tapping the back of Tatum’s leg as he sprinted back on defense. On the bench, Hugo Gonzalez, Sam Hauser, and the rest of the crew jumped up and down with the enthusiasm typically mustered for a game-winner.
Those first two baskets got the lid off the basket; Tatum ended up making five consecutive field goals en route to a 15-point, 12-rebounds, 7-assist night.
And, for the most part, like Harper Jr said, the 29-year-old donning a “0” jersey looked like Jayson Tatum.
Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude
After the game, Tatum’s mom, Brandy Cole, hugged family and friends in the back hall, moments after Tatum made his way through the tunnel.
“What a game,” she said, grinning. Her voice brimmed with pride, but the overwhelming look on her face was relief.
Cole was, undeniably, grateful — grateful to see her son overcome nights of tears and put forth a strong NBA performance. Grateful that, after 10 months of tireless work behind-the-scenes, the moment had finally arrived.
Gratitude, after all, was the word of the day.
“As a basketball player, when you take an extended period of time off, you’re anxious — you want it really bad,” Tatum said. “And obviously, I wanted to hit every shot I took, but I really was just kind of like, grateful. I had a real sense of gratitude, just being back on the floor and playing basketball again. And it just kind of brought me back to everything I’ve been through in the last 10 months, and the fact that I was able to even be out there today was like a really big win for me.”
At times throughout the night, Tatum just smiled. He smiled almost every time he checked out of the game. He smiled after he and Jaylen Brown botched an alley-oop in the fourth quarter. He smiled as he embraced Joe Mazzulla, shortly after the final buzzer sounded.
“I thought he played with a sense of gratitude, a sense of perspective,” Mazzulla said. “I thought he played with a sense of freedom, just, ‘I’m here, I’m accepting this, I’m grateful for this.’”
Tatum’s teammates were grateful, too.
“I want to commend JT for taking that notion and [being] like I want to come back,” Brown said on the Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady podcast, a day before Tatum’s return. “His even wanting to come back is an unselfish act, putting potentially his body on the line in order for us to accomplish something great.”
I spoke to a Celtics fan in the crowd who was at MSG almost 10 months ago, the night of the injury. Gratitude was his overwhelming sentiment, too.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see those two play together again,” he said. “Definitely not this season, at least.”
I asked that fan what it felt like to be in the building for Tatum’s return: “I’m just grateful for him. This hasn’t been an easy year for me. But, moments like these are why you become a sports fan.”
Tatum was grateful for everyone, too: for his teammates, for his coaches, for his trainer, Nick Sang. That’s why on Thursday, one day before his return, he addressed the room in a heartfelt speech: “I really just kind of telling everybody in the room that they all played a part in essentially helping me get to this moment.”
Normally, Tatum takes a hot minute to come out and address postgame media. He showers and puts on his pregame outfit, sometimes only taking the podium almost an hour after the game’s conclusion.
But this time was different. Tatum took the podium still in his basketball clothes. Perhaps an unintentional decision, it was deeply profound at the same time. The very same star who is normally eager to put on a more curated outfit just wanted to wear his uniform just a moment longer.
Tatum reflected on all the hard moments, all the doubts, the dreams that felt shattered. He spoke candidly about how much this Celtics team’s inspiring play made him want to come back.
“I don’t know if there’s a team that’s been more fun to watch this season,” Tatum said.
Then, after an uncharacteristically-long postgame address, he walked back into the Celtics locker room.
He paused for a moment as he looked at his locker, and exhaled.
After 10 grueling months, the energy shifted.
He was back.
