Jayson Tatum (0) Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Celtics' Jayson Tatum frustrated with history-biased MVP voting

By Adam Taylor | Last updated 2/18/24

During a recent episode of NBA Today, ESPN's Brian Windhorst admitted that Jayson Tatum's struggles in the 2022 NBA Finals could hinder his MVP candidacy this season.

When addressing reporters at his All-Star game news conference, Tatum took a veiled shot at that reasoning.

"Would I love to win? Yes," Tatum said. "But apparently us losing the Finals two years ago affects what people think of me now, so I guess I’ve got some ground to make up. But everybody who has a vote, they vote. The criteria is different, everybody thinks differently. Right, wrong, or indifferent, it is what it is, so you can’t tell people what they should look for when they vote."

Clearly, Tatum's comments were directed toward what Windhorst had said. He has a right to be frustrated, too. Tatum was only 23 when he faced the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

He also had a non-displaced fracture in his wrist. Then, in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, he got injured in the first quarter. There has to be a level of context involved in these discussions especially if he's being penalized for those performances in the MVP race.

Tatum has been the most impressive player on the Celtics this year and helped them to the best record in the league. His statistical production has dipped, but he's sacrificing due to the elite-level talent within Boston's rotation. No one on the Celtics roster is having a career year. Instead, Boston is focused on building championship habits.

It's highly unlikely that Tatum will win the 2023-24 MVP, with other players around the league enjoying exceptional individual seasons.

However, he is right to call out pre-conceived judgments based on previous performances. If the Celtics win a championship this season, it will be interesting to see how Tatum is treated in MVP voting next year.

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