Yahoo Sports contributing NBA writer Tom Haberstroh and NBA writer Dan Devine discuss the pending return for the Boston star why his relatively quick recovery from an Achilles injury could end up reflecting a path followed by one his idols. Check out the full conversation on “The Big Number” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Dan, 10 months since he came back, eight months for Kobe Bryant when he came back back then.
And the note that I want people to remember is that Kevin Durant, the greatest Achilles recovery story of all time, he came back in 18 months.
He took the entire season off, and because of COVID, it got pushed back.
And if I’m looking at whether I want the Kobe Bryant road back, the return that was quick, but ultimately ended in a lot of just b- breaking down over the last couple years of his career, and then Kevin Durant.
I know it’s easy for me to say, Dan, but I want the Kevin Durant story rather than the Kobe Bryant return story ’cause I feel like that might be what’s best for Jayson Tatum coming back mid-season.
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How do you see this situation playing out?
Like, are you I, I know you’re not a Celtics fan, but are you at all nervous about his return coming back if he does this in the next couple weeks?
I don’t know how you couldn’t be at least a little bit nervous.
You know, I mean, obviously the Celtics and Tatum and their, you know, player health team and, you know, Tatum’s doctors, every- they, they all have the information at hand that we don’t as far as what the le- relative strength of his, his calf and his ankle and his heel and every, you know, every other, and the ligaments and everything.
Like, what the, the general health looks like and if it’s more, in, you know, leaning into the red or leaning into the green.
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You’d have to imagine that everybody would throw their bodies in front of it, if it was at all a concern, right?
that said, you’re coming back in, like, the heat of a playoff race where the Celtics have I mean, it’s been a remarkable season for Boston to get to the second seed in the, in the East without Tatum to be, you know, by point differential, one of the two or three best teams in the NBA for a lo- a large chunk of the season without Tatum.
you know, Jaylen Brown with the mid- the sort of fringe MVP case that people keep making, and Derrick White can even in a down shooting season continuing to be one of the highest impact two-way players in the NBA.
Like, there’s a m- brilliant stories abound in Boston, and Tatum coming back to add another weapon for a potential title run in what everybody expected would be a gap year, like that’s, it’s, it, that would be as good a story as any of them, right?
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I think you would be Like, I was there when it– I was covering Knicks-Celtics- Oh, yeah game four when Tatum went down.
My assignment very quickly changed from the Knicks are, you know, on the verge of some place no one thought they could be to the Celtics are on the verge of the unimaginable.
And I was there.
I was, like, in the pressers.
I was asking Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, like, “Were you able to talk to him?
Have you…” Like, and seeing the thousand-yard stares on those guys’ faces, like, knowing what was gonna come for them and for the team.
And for them to have overcome that and get to where they are now is, again, one of the best stories in the NBA this season.
And I would imagine that anybody who was there, who saw that, who watched it all happen, w- has to have at least a little bit of concern.