{"id":2804,"date":"2026-03-06T23:43:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/03\/jayson-tatum-will-make-his-return-to-the-boston-celtics\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T23:43:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:43:24","slug":"jayson-tatum-will-make-his-return-to-the-boston-celtics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/03\/jayson-tatum-will-make-his-return-to-the-boston-celtics\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum Will Make His Return To The Boston Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After rupturing his right Achilles tendon less than a year ago, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum is set to make his season debut.<\/p>\n

According to ESPN<\/a>, Tatum will officially be listed in the starting lineup ahead of the Celtics for the first time this season as the Celtics take on the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n

When Tatum suffered<\/a> the injury, he was able to get surgery the next day in New York City, which put him ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s pretty strong data that if you do [Achilles surgery] within 24 hours [of injury], patients have better outcomes,\u201d Tatum\u2019s surgeon, Dr. Martin O\u2019Malley, said in Tatum\u2019s docuseries, \u201cThe Quiet Work.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the series, Tatum spoke candidly about the emotional devastation of the injury and how challenging going to rehab six days a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked, and I was scared. It just felt like everything just kinda flashed before my eyes,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cEverything that I did in my career, and for that moment, it felt like it came to an end. It was heartbreaking. I just couldn\u2019t help but think, \u2018Am I ever gonna play again?\u2019 To be honest, at that point, I ain\u2019t had no hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI always was optimistic, I always felt like I could overcome anything, but this was different,\u201d he added in a later episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coach Joe Mazzulla said that he always expected Tatum to return.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always knew he was coming back this year,\u201d Mazzulla said Friday. \u201cI think I knew that when he decided to have surgery within 16 hours \u2026 whatever the case was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it wasn\u2019t a thousand percent sure,\u201d Mazzulla added, \u201cbut I knew it was going to do everything possible to be in position to make a decision to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

TATUM REMAINS ONE OF THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE LEAGUE<\/h2>\n

After being drafted third overall in the 2017 NBA Draft, Tatum has become one of the premier faces of the NBA. He was named to five All-NBA teams (four of which are First Team) and eight All-Star squads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tatum has won two Olympic Gold Medals (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024) and was the inaugural winner of the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After rupturing his right Achilles tendon less than a year ago, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum is set to make…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14044,"featured_media":2809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-2804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-rss","tag-culture","tag-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14044"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}