Seven years ago, Jayson Tatum officially announced his arrival in the NBA when he dunked on LeBron James in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Boston Celtics rookie’s dunk reverberated through the arena, and Tatum further had the nerve to bump into arguably the greatest player in the league at the time. Behind the scenes, however, Marcus Smart revealed that his 19-year-old teammate couldn’t fathom what had just happened.

“When Jason actually dunked on LeBron, we all knew what it meant something to him, and we all knew what it meant,” Marcus Smart said on NBAT2. “It established him as the player that he is now. He’s next up. You don’t see LeBron getting dunked on, especially at that time. He was blocking everything. So, in the game, he tried to play it cool, even bumped him a little bit.”

James eventually had the final say, defeating the Celtics to reach yet another NBA Finals, only to get swept by the Golden State Warriors. Although the Celtics lost the series, Tatum had something to celebrate off the court.

“Afterwards, he was fangirling,” Smart continued of Tatum’s viral moment. “He was like, ‘I can’t believe it. I can’t wait to show my son. This is going to be crazy.'”

After the game, when Tatum was asked about the dunk-and-bump, he said he “meant no disrespect,” but he wanted to get revenge for the back-to-back daggers from James in Game 6. The youngster also felt some degree of offensive responsibility because Kyrie Irving missed Game 7 due to septum surgery.

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Seven years later, Tatum is an NBA champion and the face of the Boston Celtics, one of the most formidable offensive forces in the league. His chapter started in 2018, when the Celtics showed glimpses of title contention. He is setting a different, stronger example today, nearing a comeback from an Achilles tendon tear. While many core players remained with the team and won the chip in 2024, the Celtics moved Smart, and he missed his chance to win the title.

Marcus Smart reveals the one moment that still keeps him up at night

Marcus Smart was one of the core players on the Celtics roster that later became a championship team with Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, and Jaylen Brown. However, a year after the 2022 NBA Finals trip, the franchise decided to move in a different direction. They traded Smart to the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-team trade that helped them bring Kristaps Porzingis. It was a surprising move, given that Boston let go of a recent Defensive Player of the Year.

A year later, the Celtics won their first championship since 2008. Did Smart’s trade help Boston go all the way? Perhaps so. But he still feels the sting of that trade.

“I have mixed feelings,” Smart said. “I love it. Lakers are great, but I was drafted by Boston, and I built something there with those guys. We were rebuilding with Avery Bradley and those guys. So, I was there from the start, and then we make it to the NBA Finals in 2022. We don’t get the job done. And then you think we seen what it takes. We seen this. You get a chance to go, and then bam, you get traded. So that was unfinished business for sure.”

Smart is still a great defensive piece alongside LeBron James and Luka Doncic on the Los Angeles Lakers roster. However, he will always be remembered as a Celtic, one of the pioneers of the franchise’s revival in the post-Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett era.