One personality trait that is visible in Jayson Tatum is him being non-confrontational. Imagine being the key to bringing the Celtics’ 18th banner and yet not getting minutes in the Olympic team. Tatum started just two games out of five at the 2024 Olympics, averaging 5.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.0 steals in 17.7 minutes per appearance. While he used words such as a “tough personal experience” and a “challenging and humbling” situation, the 6x All-Star stays away from the drama as much as possible. However, sometimes, even well-natures attempts may lead to unlikely consequences.

On X, fans edit and share highlights of their favorite players. One such instance involved Evan Turner, who was also an assistant coach in Beantown when JT was hooping. So, clearly, there is a connection that also led to a back-and-forth a few months ago. But the banter continued today, as Tatum reposted the tweet and added, “Don’t yall see the resemblance“. Meaning, Turner’s drives and layups were very similar to how JT approaches the net. However, the former Boston player/assistant coach was not a fan of such a comparison.

While describing his ability, Turner first wrote, “6’7 wit a yo-yo,” as he reposted the clip. But when it came to replying to Tatum, three words from the 11-year veteran were enough. “Ayo chill, twin“. Even though ET doesn’t want to agree to this, Jayson Tatum and his fans agree to that notion. That’s why a netizen even commented, “The spins and lays are actually uncanny lma“. It’s not that Turner has some agenda against the Missouri native. During a conversation on the Club 520 podcast, Jeff Teague revealed how the assistant coach viewed Tatum’s talent and the methods to train him.

“ET was assistant coaches at this point. ET was like, ‘What am I going to teach Jayson Tatum? What I’m going teach him? He better than me“. This revelation from Teague, who was part of the roster, signifies that Turner had more faith in JT’s abilities. Despite being the assistant coach, he had no issue admitting that the 6x All-Star was more skilled than him. Even though ET worked just one year with Tatum and the Celtics, that relationship is still strong today.

Jayson Tatum humbly proved Evan Turner wrong, despite the veteran’s brag

Turner joined the Celtics coaching staff in December 2020, following his retirement after 10 years in the league. The former No. 2 pick in the 2010 NBA draft played under Stevens from 2014-16, creating a close relationship with the now President of Basketball Operations. At one point, there were rumors of him being the next head coach as Stevens chose the front office role. However, ET denied those rumors with a tweet, “The rumors and speculations about me being the next head coach of the Boston Celtics are absolutely false!”

Jayson Tatum was on X at the time, replied, “Was hoping they would be true“. Again signifying a relationship of respect and love. But when it comes to challenges and hooping, JT had no problem busting some of the myths. During the conversation on Jeff Teague’s podcast, one of the co-hosts asked if there was any truth to Tatum losing 5-0 to Turner in a 1v1 competition. And the answer, straight up gold.

Tatum responded, “That’s probably the reason I don’t address a lot of things. People say a lot of things on the Internet, on TV about me. Everybody got a job…sometimes you just can’t let people get away with lying.” As stated earlier, Turner was an assistant at the time, so it is possible that they played a lot of 1v1 matchups. JT accepted that the contest was intense, but never lost to Turner at the time.