Some of the interview from Radiohead’s link above.
As several NBA analysts said that it was time for Boston to break up its young duo, Tatum admitted that he spoke with Brown about their futures playing together. They both came to the same conclusion.
“We’ve had plenty of talks. I think [talks of splitting us up] really picked up this year, especially at the beginning of the season,” Tatum said on J.J. Redick’s “The Old Man & the Three” podcast. “We have plenty of talks — we ask each other, ‘Do you want to be here?’ We both were like, ‘Yeah.’ He was like, ‘Bro, I don’t understand.’
If you really think about it, we’ve had way more success together than this year and what we didn’t accomplish last year. JB’s been to three conference finals, I’ve been to two. Like you said, we’re both still very far from our prime. And I think what people don’t understand is that if you want to break us up, the grass is not always greener. There’s not a lot of guys in the NBA like JB. Or if you want to get rid of me — not to toot my own horn — but I think I’m one of the best players. I couldn’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to have two of the best players, that are under 25, on your team.
“Yeah, there are certain rough patches throughout a season. But we’ve won way more games together than we lost.”
On Marcus’s comment earlier in the season:“They don’t want to pass the ball.”
Tatum shared that he talked with Smart about his comments the following day, which he called a “great talk.”
“It caught me off guard, for sure,” Tatum said. “I think you have to understand with being in the NBA, especially sometimes after — we’d just blown a [19]-point lead to Chicago. This is the beginning of the season, we’re probably like 2-5 and everyone’s frustrated. We’re all probably on edge a little bit. So when I [saw] it, I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t mad or anything. I just waited until the next day.
“I saw Smart at the facility, and we sat down and talked. I think it was a great talk, actually. We had some time to sleep, the adrenaline was going from the game. He apologized for what he said and that it was something he shouldn’t have said in the media and they got his words mixed up or whatever.
“I didn’t take offense. I started off by saying, ‘Listen bro, I make mistakes. I’ve still got a long way to go from where I’m trying to get to.’ I think we ended the conversation on, ‘We’re all in this together. We’re on the same team. We’re tying to figure it out.’
“Obviously, saying certain things like that in the media doesn’t help anybody’s case because that’s all they talk about for the next week or so when they’re referring to the Celtics. It wasn’t the end of the world. No harm. No foul. We’re past it now. “
