Celtic Ace! Moment of Faith! Tatum’s Mamba Road!

This is a text message sent by Celtics chief general Tatum to someone before the 2022 playoffs against the Heat.

For Tatum and the Celtics at that time, this was the first time they were closest to the finals since 2010. As long as they could win this key tiebreak, the Celtics could return to the finals stage that had been away from for 12 years. On the eve of this critical battle, Tatum chose to send a text message to his idol mentor, even though he knew that the text message would not receive any response.

The object of his text message was Kobe Bryant, the deceased Lakers star.

"When he was six years old, he was fascinated when he first saw Kobe's game! He tried hard to imitate Kobe. As a child, his coordination was really good."

In Tatum's father's memory, his son was already a big fan of Kobe when he was a child. It was 2004, and the OK group had just disintegrated. At this time, Kobe was young and energetic. After gaining the maximum ball rights, he began to show his offensive talent to the entire league. The various scoring performances present directly impressed Tatum, who was only six years old.

Perhaps inspired by Kobe, the young Tatum had already strengthened his ambitions. He wanted to stand on the NBA stage like his idol. However, such a dream made him ridiculed by the whole class.

"At that time, the teacher asked us to write down the career we wanted to be in the future. Many people wrote about the profession of doctors, lawyers, etc., but when the teacher saw me write down the goals of NBA players, he asked me to change my dreams and choose a more practical profession. At this time, all the classmates were laughing at me, which made me so embarrassed that I cried. "

This move also made Tatum's mother furious. Then she took Tatum to school, questioning that the teacher could not deny other people's dreams at will, and kept telling her son that he wanted to believe in himself and not give up what he wanted to do because of others' words.

Thanks to the support of his parents, Tatum has made him more determined to be his basketball path, and in his heart, Kobe is no longer just an idol, but has become a goal worth pursuing.

According to his father's recollection, Tatum read Kobe's highlights over and over again in high school. He learned about Kobe's self-discipline and diligence. He went to school to train in advance every day, practiced dribbling until the early morning, and only took a day off when he won the state championship in high school.

's almost paranoid expression is exactly the same as his idol. But because of the repeated training, Tatum has also become one of the best players of the year, favored by the prestigious Duke University, and even entered the NBA as a Tanhua in 2017, truly fulfilling his childhood dream. In the rookie season, Tatum began to show his talent on the offensive end, just like his idol Kobe, and compared with Kobe who jumped in high school, who kept breaking the league's youngest scoring record, Tatum's performance in his first year of rookie is also not inferior.

Perhaps when we spread the data, you may question it. Tatum only ranked fifth in the rookie list in the rookie list, and averaged 13.9 points per game is not much, and it doesn't seem to be very outstanding. But from a game perspective, Tatum's performance in the regular season is sometimes good and sometimes bad, and it is hard to describe the youth of the rookie player. However, in the critical playoff field, his talent on the offensive end began to show his strength. In the playoffs against the Knicks, Tatum scored 28 points, becoming the first rookie in the history of the Celtics to score 28 points in the playoffs since Larry Bird. He scored 20+ points in five consecutive games, becoming the first young player in league history to perform like this at the age of less than 21.

The Celtics also entered the Eastern Conference Finals with his crazy output. Even facing James at the time, the young Celtics still tenaciously fought until the seventh game before losing; Tatum scored 24 points in the whole game, and the rookie scored 351 points in the first year of the playoffs, making him the second in the NBA's rookie playoff scoring list, second only to Jabbar's 352 points.

After performing well, it naturally attracts the attention of the idol. Kobe successfully got Tatum's contact information, and then took the initiative to send him a message telling him that if he needed it, he could train with him in the offseason.

Facing the advice of his idol, Tatum was completely ecstatic. According to Tatum's father's recollection, Tatum was out of breath when he called home. He had just experienced a training game, but his tone was extremely excited, just as Tatum himself said:

"This is Kobe! Great stars with countless honors taught themselves, which is definitely not comparable to self-taught on the screen in the past."

Later Tatum admitted that this offseason trip to Los Angeles was a great reward for him. Not only did he learn basketball skills from Kobe, but he also had years of experience in the league. These are of great significance to Tatum, who has just entered the league.

After two months of special training in Los Angeles, Kobe is no longer just an out of reach for Tatum. He has begun to become the most reliable mentor and friend next to Tatum.

Coming into his second season of his career, thanks to his outstanding performance in the rookie year, Tatum began to become the core of the Celtics' offensive, handing in a data sheet of 15.7 points, 6 rebounds, 2.1 assists. Kobe also kept giving advice around Tatum. In the past, he pointed out Tatum's shortcomings in a show, and Tatum later said that he had replayed this clip dozens of times.

After the two trained, Kobe would send a message directly to Tatum, telling him what needs to be strengthened tonight's game, and he would also take the initiative to ask Kobe for advice. His former idol became his mentor, and Tatum was chosen by Kobe as his successor.

Originally, according to this development trend, the story of the two men's master and apprentice may have a better ending. However, an air crash made all this change.

Unexpectedly, on the finals stage, the Celtics took the lead in achieving a 3-0 big advantage; this also led to the Celtics' generals underestimating the enemy and staged a 38-point defeat in the fourth game, which should have been closed. This defeat also woke Tatum up and had to wind up tightly to win the last 48 minutes.

In the fifth game, Tatum ushered in an explosion. He scored 16 points in the first half and took a 20-point lead after halftime. He also made himself the player with the most scores under the age of 26 in NBA history with a total playoff score of 2,696 points. The record holder before him was his idol Kobe Bryant. In the end, the Celtics did not let the opportunity slip away. In the final game, they successfully closed the ball 106-88, and won the king 4-1 with a big score. Tatum scored 31 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists, which was the first achievement in the team's championship.

But unexpectedly, the Most Valuable Player in the Finals was awarded to his teammate Jaylen Brown, but as long as you have watched the game, you can know the changes Tatum made for the championship.

The defensive end Tatum took on the most tiring assisted defense task. Although the large loss of physical strength affects the offensive efficiency, it allows teammates to have more physical strength to contribute on the offensive end. On the offensive end, he no longer forced high-difficulty shots like before, but instead played more reasonably. He relied on his offense to traction defense to create opportunities for his teammates. This may be a bit different from what his idol told him at the beginning, but it is the transformation accumulated by Tatum after repeated failures.

This transformation is as Kobe told Tatum at the beginning:

"Those who want to achieve greatness will pay any price. This requires sacrifice, and the key is what you are willing to give up for greatness."

Now Tatum is taking the footsteps of his idol, winning the first championship in his life, and taking the first step of a great star. Even the difficult moments in his career are exactly the same as his idol, but the Mamba spirit continues in his body.