“I think everybody’s concerned with Jayson. I’m not sure how bad it is. Didn’t look great. But I think everybody is kind of more concerned with that,” said Jaylen Brown recently. Losing to the New York Knicks 3-1 in the playoffs was bad enough. Having your star player be sidelined thanks to a recent ailment he sustained? Straight out bad luck. Any hope that the Boston Celtics had of reaching the Conference Finals went down the drain after Jayson Tatum sustained a torn right Achilles tendon during Game 4 against the Knicks and underwent surgery to treat it. As a result, several people are now turning up to send their love to Tatum, including the player who held the Celtics’ championship title before him.

Kevin Garnett recently took to his official Instagram account to share a story with his 1 million followers. The same featured a picture of Jayson Tatum with folded hands, looking away from the camera. Garnett attached two captions alongside it, one of which read “Get well soon, JT (folded hands emoji)”. The other read “Prayers go out to MY DOG JT N HIS FAMILY.. (more emojis)”.

Jayson Tatum sustained an Achilles tendon as there were less than 3 minutes left in Game 4. The star player was diving for a loose ball when suddenly, he went down. The pain on his face was quite visible as the player held onto his right ankle. After OG Anunoby put away a fastbreak dunk, the game was briefly stopped, and Tatum was attended to by the medical staff. He was helped off the court and immediately taken to the locker room in a wheelchair. Footage captured from a camera in the arena’s tunnel showed the 27-year-old having his hands on his face, visibly distraught.

As of now, the Boston Celtics have yet to release an official timeline for Jayson Tatum’s recovery. Adam Himmelsbach previously reported that Tatum is expected to make a full recovery, and that players who have suffered similar injuries have been sidelined for mostly one season. Dr. Gregory Waryasz, an orthopedic surgeon, revealed that the Celtics star is likely in for a 9-12-month recovery period. Despite this, it is certain news now that the defending champion’s tournament run has been brought to quite an anti-climactic end.

It would make sense that Kevin Garnett would be among the first NBA personalities to send his best wishes to Tatum during a time of need. Not only are both of them legends in the Boston Celtics community, but each was amongst the top 2 leading scorers in one of the Celtics squads that won the championship post-2000. On top of that, Tatum is someone whom the former player respects, and vice versa. From hyping the player’s performance up in the recent playoffs to sharing a heartwarming moment with Tatum’s son, Deuce, Garnett continues to show that he is ride-or-die for the 27-year-old. However, he did once hold a viewpoint which was only for the benefit of Tatum, but one which the latter himself might not have agreed with.

Kevin Garnett was glad Jayson Tatum got benched at the Paris Olympics: “He got to actually rest and chill”

The 2024 Paris Olympics ended on a good note for the Team USA men’s basketball squad. They had a close shave against Serbia in the Semi-Final, defeated the host country in the Finals, and won the Gold Medal. Unfortunately, Jayson Tatum was one player who wasn’t satisfied even after securing the ultimate prize. After all, he didn’t start Team USA’s campaign opener against Serbia, and missed out on the semifinal game too. Even in the games he appeared in, Tatum only averaged 17.7 minutes. In comparison, LeBron James and Stephen Curry played in all games and averaged 24.5 and 23.3 minutes, respectively. However, Kevin Garnett said that what happened only happened for the best.

The former player released another episode of his ‘KG Certified’ podcast sometime after the USA-France game. When the discussion shifted to Tatum, he said, “It was great that he didn’t have to play a lot of minutes, man. He’s coming off of the Finals… I’m glad they didn’t need Jayson Tatum. I’m glad he got to actually rest and chill.”

Well, if Garnett believed that, then he was a part of a very small majority.

After all, Tatum’s playing time didn’t even cross the Top 50 mark when compared to all the players who participated in the basketball tournament. This treatment of a player who made it to the All-NBA First Team in the last three seasons, and had won the NBA championship only a few months ago, brought the rage down on Steve Kerr. Tatum himself took to social media and re-shared a tweet on his story from Vince Staples, who had tweeted, “WE WILL AVENGE JAYSON TATUM”.

However, the player never said anything about Kevin Garnett and his remarks. Therefore, things might have still been good between them back then.