Funny how people say Ant Edwards is "mature beyond his years" for his comments last night, whereas if it were Tatum he'd get absolutely shredded 
I don't even want to entertain the arguments. Even if MIN goes on to blow this whole series, people will still love and defend Ant in the national media. There's a pretty clear double standard and additional hate for Tatum compared to the other stars in the league.
It’s wild how things have turned on Tatum…he very well may be the most hated widely viewed as “overrated” player in the entire nba. I’m hoping he proves everyone wrong but I’m starting to worry frankly.
It might be the same for Ant in a few years if he doesn't win it either. Btw, Doncic has been amazing this postseason but even going in he was getting a lot of criticism/hate for being "overrated", and I'll admit I was part of that too but so were many on this board because he was a liability on defense. So far he's actually also been solid on that end.
I was surprised how much criticism Doncic was getting for his lack of playoff success. He has only just turned 25. It is not like he has been blessed with great teams.
He seems to get targetted more for criticism than other players.
Yeah. Tatum's also only 26. Even guys like Lebron got hate before he finally got over the hump with Miami. I get that it's part of things whether fair or not, but Tatum has been getting crushed over the past year even more than usual. It's insane.
Tatum played in 94 playoff games before the age of 26, which is 3rd in NBA history The only guys ahead of him are Kobe Bryant and Tony Parker. Both those guys played with all-time great big men and didn't need to lead their teams early on.
It's an awful number of games without a championship. He has been close many times. There was the choke against a vulnerable Cleveland team in gsme 7 in the Garden. That could be explained away as inexperience. Then there was the Kyrie year, then the meltdown in the bubble against the Raptors and Heat.
The team is ravaged by injuries in 2021 but makes the Finals in 2022. That year was a magical run. But wear and tear built up over a couple grueling roubds against Milwaukee and Miami in series in which there were opportunities to put it away earlier and get guys rest.
A better-rested, veteran Warriors team psychologically bested the Celtics in 6 games. The Celtics were tantalizingly close to taking a 3-1 lead in game 4 but stumbled down the stretch and never recovered.
Then last year the C's fiddled around with Atlanta and Philly before collapsing spectacularly against Miami.
If Jayson Tatum mixes in a few average games into these failures he has a minimum of one banner.
His situation is pretty unique. A young guy who leads his team past the second round in 4 of his first 6 seasons but doesn't seal the deal in certain key games. If he didn't have so much success he wouldn't be under this microscope. Nobody bashed Curry before the Warriors' first title because they weren't expected to win.
And as I've said before I think the expectations are fueling the anxiety of this team. Tatum needs to shut out the noise and play his game like a killer. He needs to put that chip on his shoulder and play with nothing to lose, like Anthony Edwards did in those first 2 games against Denver. Or like the Heat do against us.
He doesn't need to be Michael Jordan. If he is just "average Tatum" that is likely enough.
