BOSTON — It’s not likely you’ve ever run into Jayson Tatum at the dry cleaner’s or your neighborhood Market Basket, and I doubt you’ve ever squeezed into the seat next to the Boston Celtics superstar during that long Green Line commute from Newton Highlands to North Station.
But from the moment he crashed to the floor at Madison Square Garden on Monday night after rupturing his right Achilles tendon, writhing in pain as he grabbed hold of his leg, it was as though basketball player Jayson Tatum became citizen Jayson Tatum.
Leastways, that’s the impression one might get by taking a twirl through social media, or listening to any of the sports talk shows or, heck, just stepping outside and chatting up the first sports-minded acquaintance you run into on the street.
To be sure, the talking points generally center on what the injury means in terms of the Celtics repeating as NBA champions, as well as the roster rebuild that might need to take place as Tatum recovers from surgery, which he underwent Tuesday. And yet most people have seemingly found it disrespectful to speak of Tatum’s injury solely in basketball terms. People genuinely feel for the guy, and not in some obligatory, performative, thoughts-and-prayers kind of way.
Tatum had already been climbing the depth chart of all-time great Celtics. Being one of the stars of a championship team last season was a big step. Being a star on multiple title-winning teams was the next goal, since that’s what so many of the great Celtics — Russell, Cousy, Havlicek, Cowens, Bird, McHale, Parish, and so on — were able to do. But Tatum has also been a great Celtics representative, from his tireless work ethic to his heart-tugging tradition of delivering a hug to his little son Deuce before home games, and these things don’t go unnoticed.
Tatum is only 27 — to be precise, 27 years and 72 days as of Wednesday — and yet this is his eighth season with the Celtics. To put that in perspective, that’s more seasons than Pedro Martínez played with the Red Sox (seven). Tatum doesn’t have the Dominican Dandy’s outsized personality or knack for delivering postgame oratory that’ll be talked about for days and weeks and in some cases forever, but, like Martínez, his popularity has grown and grown and grown to a degree that it’s hard to mull the day when he might not be part of the mix.
And yet here we are. For now, anyway. Whatever the future holds, a distinct and brilliant chapter in Celtics history came to an end Monday night at Madison Square Garden. The Celtics returned this season with their championship roster largely intact — very rare in modern-day sports — but there likely won’t be any more titles with that starting five.
Speaking of Madison Square Garden, it’s important to note the respect Knicks fans showed Tatum on Monday night. There was of course plenty of cheering when Tatum went down, but that’s only because in the ensuing turnover, the Knicks’ OG Anunoby delivered a dunk that gave New York a 113-104 lead with 2:58 remaining.
But the crowd remained respectfully quiet as Tatum was being attended by the Boston training staff. Sean Grande, the longtime radio voice of the Celtics for 98.5 The Sports Hub, took notice. “The place was going wild after the Anunoby basket, and that’s a hard party to dampen,” Grande said Tuesday. “It’s been about 25 years since the Knicks have been in this situation. But they’re super knowledgeable fans, and they understood what was happening. You could tell when play stopped.”
An endless parade of Knicks fans went to X to post variations of comments that began with, “I hate the Celtics, but …”
Some back-in-the-day perspective: During the 1949 MLB season, Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio didn’t play his first game until June 28 because he was recovering from a heel injury. His first game was at Fenway Park. According to an Associated Press dispatch, the packed Fenway house “… cheered the elder of the two DiMaggios as if he were one of their own.” (Joltin’ Joe’s younger brother Dominic was an outfielder with the Red Sox.) As The Boston Globe’s Harold Kaese put it, “People were really glad to see (Joe) DiMaggio back.”
Richard Johnson, curator of the Sports Museum of New England, was watching from home Monday night when Tatum’s Achilles went out. He, too, has taken note of how lots of Knicks fans are reacting.
“People in New York and Boston know sports the way Londoners know theater,” is how Johnson put it.
Tatum’s injury is a reminder, as if anyone needed one, that professional athletes are always one play away from having their lives and careers forever changed.
Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley was rendered a quadriplegic as a result of a crushing hit from the Oakland Raiders’ Jack Tatum during an exhibition game in 1978. Stingley was 26 when he was injured. He died in 2007 at age 55.
Normand Léveillé was only 19 and in his second season with the Boston Bruins when he suffered a brain aneurysm during a 1982 game against the Vancouver Canucks. He never played again, though he continues to take part in various Bruins alumni events.
Red Sox star Tony Conigliaro, a Boston native who led the American League in home runs in 1965, was never the same after he was hit in the left eye by a Jack Hamilton pitch on an August 1967 night at Fenway. He was 22 at the time. He died in 1990 at age 45.
In 1986, Maryland basketball star Len Bias died of a drug overdose just two days after being drafted by the Celtics. In 1993, Celtics star Reggie Lewis went into cardiac arrest and died while working out at the team’s practice facility. He was 27.
These are extreme examples. Tatum is expected to make a comeback with the Celtics. But this injury appears to have touched everybody, partly, I suppose, because Tatum is a star player and this was a nationally-televised game between two high-profile teams. But there’s also this: Nobody has any reason not to like Tatum beyond the uniform he wears.
We read nonstop stories about fans getting into fights, with their sloppy antics circling the globe on social media. We read about fans interfering with the games, sometimes in history-making fashion. This time, everyone, everyone, is rallying around Jayson Tatum. That can only help the comeback.
(Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)
