Tatum talks about leadership, takes shot at JB

[Goldstar88]

Being a leader doesn't mean you know it all, right? I don't know it all," Tatum said. "I'll be the first person to say that. Being a leader is being comfortable with raising your hand like, I don't know. Can you explain that to me? I don't know X, Y, and Z. I want to learn. Being around somebody that feels like they know it all, I don't want to be around that person. I don't want to be the smartest person in the room. I want to learn from somebody else.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/celtics-jayson-tatum-details-leadership-231001299.html

Certainly sounds like he's talking about JB...

Maybe. But what comes through most to me from the post is that JT may not be the kind of leader the Celtics need. I love the guy and am 100% on board with him being a learner. But being a leader for this team I do think requires a very high confidence level and an ability to have answers not just questions. JB may have been delusional but his self-assuredness may well have been a positive when leading the young Celtics players last season.

I also think that JT doesn't have the leadership traits that the Cs need. He is soft and doesn't exude confidence, unlike Bird, Garnett or Pierce. He's offensive game is lazy too and in the last 2 or 3  years he hasn't been clutch.  If not for Brown's superb game in 2024 the Cs wouldn't have gotten the trophy (don't remind me of JT's flaky postgame celebration).

People wants him to be the leader of the Cs, but for  me it's just like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

Tatum averaged 30ppg for an entire season and is regularly making All-NBA first team, but you think he is soft and lacks confidence? 

Not all leaders are loud and boisterous. I think Jrue Holiday is a perfect example of this.

A lot of people can see Tatum regularly  getting tight and nervous in crunch time.  He does lack confidence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIfUL_2nbCM

Here are some more moments of Tatum lacking confidence and getting tight in crunch time. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=grIHgfCKHVE&pp=ygUbamF5c29uIHRhdHVtIGNsdXRjaCBtb21lbnRz&ra=m

[Csfan1984]

Think he was just preaching Cs leadership/team philosophy. The team wants to be analytical and not gut feel. They want guys buying into the system. They don't want traditional leaders from the player level. They value "yes"  men, and want players to feel equal. The players and team have said this before in interviews. If JB was never here Tatum would still say something cringy about leadership because the team doesn't want normal leaders.

[Donoghus]

Tatum lacks confidence? What kind of world are we living in here?

[Neurotic Guy]

Tatum lacks confidence? What kind of world are we living in here?

I don?t think he lacks confidence. My question is what type of player-leader will this team respond best to? This isn?t a cohesive veteran team.

If they respond to a less vociferous good role model, then JT might be just right. If they need a demonstrative, assertive, in your face at times, supremely confident general, I?m not sure that he can fit that profile. 

If the team doesn?t produce wins as they did last season, one of the reasons might be the difference in leadership style between JT and JB rather than their comparative talent.

[Phantom255x]

I think people are being naive if they think both Tatum wasn't somewhat involved in the Jaylen Brown trade saga AND that some of these quotes (or non-quotes too) also aren't reflective of that.

Otherwise, Tatum may be the most oblivious guy on the planet and is just going about it without checking social media or caring about what others' think (I highly doubt that)

Something 1000% happened behind the scenes in the past two seasons and it made Tatum sour on Jaylen and contributed to his departure. If Tatum truly wanted Jaylen, Brad would still give him the extension and instead dump White and others similar to KP/Jrue. And then these quotes, very hard not to connect some of the dots. Again, I said *some*. I will always believe this and nothing will change my mind/opinion here