CHARLESTON — This time last year, Jayson Tatum was in the background.
While most of the Celtics were finishing up training camp and preparing for the season, Tatum spent most of his free time in the weight room, looking in from the outside.
He still made it a point to go to every practice and nearly every game, home and away. But it was often painful to watch his team go to war on the court while he focused on rehab for a ruptured Achilles tendon.
This October, Tatum is almost 17 months removed from
his injury, and he’s front and center at camp. He’s still working with assistant coach Tony Dobbin, the same coach who worked with him through his rehab, except this time, he has no limitations.
So, this fall, Tatum feels an extra sense of gratitude and happiness, just to be a part of things.
“I have a totally different perspective,” Tatum said. “I’ve been open — last year was very tough for me. I just remember these days of training camp, and I would just be in the weight room the whole time watching the team practice, and it was just tough to not just go through it.
Nowadays, Tatum is getting to know his new Celtics teammates, like Mitchell Robinson, Paul George, Mike Conley, and rookies Chris Cenac and Dillon Mitchell.
Facing the New York Knicks four times a year, Robinson is someone Tatum has long gone up against, but never knew particularly well.
“I love Big Mitch,” Tatum said. “Hilarious guy, and he just brings a different dynamic to our team. Obviously, his size and his instincts on the defensive end. Obviously, a lob threat; how great a defender and rebounder he is. I had a hard time boxing him out for the last 7, 8 years. So, now to have him on our team just give us a different look. Something that I’m super excited about.”
Joe Mazzulla has pointed out all week that it’s easy to be connected and in good spirits at training camp.
“Every team in the league is the most together team right now,“ Mazzulla said on Sunday. ”Because we haven’t traveled. No one’s gotten benched. No one’s been on a losing streak. No one’s gotten blamed in the media. No one’s had to go stand in the corner for 10 minutes and not get the ball. So, you learn those things as the season goes on, and you just learn how to work through those things together. And you can’t simulate those. It just comes with time. And so, right now I would say all 30 teams feel great about themselves, and we got to wait till adversity hits. And adversity is even a strong word. There’s nothing really adverse about playing in the NBA. But we got to wait until stuff doesn’t go your way, and then you got to figure out who we are and how we’re going to be at our best.”
But for Tatum, simply being available for training camp has been a blessing.
“Being on this side and knowing what it felt like to have to watch the whole time, it just [brings] a different level of appreciation of just getting to be a part of the game that I love with my teammates,” Tatum said. “[It’s] a different type of joy that I have now than I did my first eight seasons.”
