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Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum is not exactly the type of guy who has a ton of things to say to the media. This dude usually keeps his head down and he does what he does best — play some elite-level basketball.
However, Tatum could not help but sound off on the league’s decision to omit him from the end-of-season All-NBA teams. The Celtics All-Star’s inability to make the cut actually cost him a contract bonus worth $33,000,000 and it isn’t surprising that he’s pretty bummed out about it. In his mind, Tatum is adamant that he did enough this season to get the All-NBA nod:
“I know I should’ve made it,” Tatum said, via Scott McLaughlin of WEEI. “Just, I guess, with the season I had. I mean, $33 million is a lot. Obviously that would make anybody feel some type of way. I wasn’t necessarily upset about losing the money. I just felt like the way I was playing, everything I did, I thought it should’ve been a no-brainer. I think I was more frustrated with that.”
Tatum did not stop there. The Celtics forward also went on to explain why he thinks the All-NBA voting system is broken and how the league should look into fixing it pronto:
“I think what they do need to change is, it’s kind of opinion-based,” Tatum said. “A bunch of media members get to vote. What’s the criteria? Is there a certain amount of games you need to play? Should you be in playoff contention? Is there a certain amount of points you should average depending on your position? I think there should be something like that in place, because I think if you just allow people to just vote and there’s nothing set in place like, ‘You gotta play this many games,’ or whatever it may be, I think that would help it out a lot. But I know nobody’s necessarily gonna feel bad for me and Donovan because we still get paid a lot of money. But I think it’s more that I just felt like I deserved to make it, not necessarily money.”
Fair points from Tatum here. Whether or not the league heeds his call, however, is an altogether different matter.
The Celtics stud also goes out of his way to emphasize that it’s not about missing out on $33 million bonus. As he said, he’s making more than enough money as it is. Nevertheless, $33 million is still $33 million. As much as he tries to deny it, there’s no way Jayson Tatum isn’t pissed about losing that amount of money.
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