The Boston Celtics are about to look nothing like the team we’ve seen over the past few seasons. Jrue Holiday is gone, Kristaps Porzingis, and Luke Kornet’s are gone too. Al Horford? Likely done. And the biggest blow—Jayson Tatum will miss the entire upcoming season with a torn Achilles. On top of all that, longtime assistant GM Austin Ainge just left for a front office role with the Utah Jazz. But through all of this chaos and change, the one thing that hasn’t wavered is Tatum’s voice as a leader.
At his recent Jayson Tatum Youth Camp, he spoke to a crowd of young players about what it really means to lead when everything’s falling apart. “There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with being, you know the guy, the best player, right,” he said in a video as shared by Ian Inangelo on X.
“So if we’re in a situation, if we’re in a game and you know it’s not going right, but we’re losing—you know they often look to the best player. And how are you going to respond? How are you gonna act, right? If I’m complaining, if I don’t believe that we’re going to win that, then the rest of the team will follow. But if I continue to encourage my teammates, you know if I’m uplifted, I’m still optimistic about winning the game, then my teammates believe that we have an opportunity, that we have a chance to win.” That mindset? That’s why no matter how many pieces the Celtics move around, Tatum remains irreplaceable.
Jayson Tatum on being the leader of a team pic.twitter.com/9DUjUClJrn
— Ian Inangelo (@iinangelo) July 26, 2025
(This is a developing story…)
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