Photo Credit: NBAE via Getty Images

Cedric Maxwell Refers To Michael Jordan When Talking About Jayson Tatum: “He Didn’t Win Immediately”

Jayson Tatum has proven himself as one of the game’s polarizing young stars. He has been on a winning team since his rookie year and has accomplished a few milestones as an individual including an All-Rookie First Team, two All-Star appearances and an All-NBA Third Team selection.

Tatum has been averaging 25.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game on 45.6% shooting from the field over the past 48 games. In unusual fashion however, the Celtics have seen a major dip despite an improved level of play from the young Celtics star, posting a 28-26 record which has them sitting in the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.  

As Tatum and the Celtics draw plenty of criticism from time to time, Celtics two-time champion Cedric Maxwell didn’t waste any time responding to their critics and doubters. In a recent episode of his own podcast, Maxwell came to defense of Tatum and referred to Michael Jordan as he reflected on Tatum’s early career.

“Michael Jordan’s arguably one of the greatest players to ever play the game. But, how long did it take him to win? He didn’t win immediately when he came in and people had dubbed him for a while as a guy who couldn’t win it. They said, “He’s individual but he doesn’t make guys around him better” and then all of a sudden he’s the greatest, now, since he made guys around him better. Can Tatum or Brown do that?”

“There’s a legion of guys out there that are not fond of Jayson Tatum and what he’s done so far this year. I’ve said before, we don’t know how COVID’s affected Jayson Tatum because there was one game in particular where he said, “I was playing against Washington and I couldn’t breathe.”

“It went on from that to, “Jayson Tatum’s not a leader, Tatum’s not this, Brown’s not that,” and it’s like, calm down. How old is he? He’s just really learning to play the game at a professional level and now you give him all the keys to the castle, and you just expect him to know it just like that.

“It was so much noise surrounding what they’ve done and what they have not done.”