Celtics’ Jayson Tatum shuts down tanking talk

Tanking is pretty much a foreign concept to the Boston Celtics. And while the historic franchise has inevitably had down years, those haven’t been common in the 21st century. Some pundits and fans expect that to change during the 2025-26 season, as Celtics star Jayson Tatum is out indefinitely due to injury and Boston’s once championship-caliber roster looks very different.

Despite his untimely Achilles rupture, Tatum believes the Celtics will act the same way as they would with him playing and do what they know: compete. He told ESPN’s Malika Andrews on “NBA Today” that this disdain for intentionally losing is promoted by current Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, yet goes far beyond him and stems from a long tradition of winning titles, via Noa Dalzell.

“It’s not even just a Joe thing,” Tatum explained on air. “The way our organization is ran, it’s the culture that we set, it’s the standard that we have — regardless of who is on our team — that we have to go out there every single night and play to that standard. That’s the Boston Celtics way. And that’s competing for championships.”

Although preseason predictions point to the Celtics taking a step back without their go-to guy, they still roster 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, Olympic gold medalist Derrick White, and reigning Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard.

They also benefit from a volatile Eastern Conference. The reigning champions of the East, the Indiana Pacers, lost star guard Tyrese Haliburton to an Achilles rupture in the playoffs (similarly to Tatum).

Indiana has already officially ruled the postseason hero out for the entirety of the 2025-26 campaign. Interestingly, the Celtics have not done the same with Tatum.

In fact, Tatum refused to say he’d miss the whole season during his massive media tour on Wednesday.