Jayson Tatum opens up about not getting drafted by Lakers

Jayson Tatum will never stop reminding the Los Angeles Lakers that he was the one who got away.

The Boston Celtics star spoke with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Elizabeth Merrill in a feature that ran this week. Tatum, who grew up a Lakers fan, touched on the 2017 NBA Draft and got in some shade at the Lakers for passing on him.

“The Lakers were my favorite team, and Kobe [Bryant] was my favorite player,” said the All-Star forward. “So it was crazy that the Lakers had the second pick and I was so close to a dream come true. But it was just like they didn’t want anything to do with me at the time.”

The ESPN feature goes further into Tatum’s journey over the years that has led him to this point of his NBA career.

The Lakers drafted hometown hero Lonzo Ball with the No. 2 overall pick in 2017 over Tatum, who went with the very next pick to the Celtics. The 76ers, who used the No. 1 pick that year on Markelle Fultz, at least gave Tatum a workout while the Lakers reportedly failed to even do that.

Tatum, like any good competitor, takes it personally that teams passed on him in the draft. But it is definitely revisionist history to suggest that the Lakers should have taken Tatum. There was a very clear top two in the 2017 draft (Fultz and Ball), while Tatum faced legitimate questions at the time about his versatility as a prospect beyond his scoring skill.

To Tatum’s credit, he put all those questions to rest and then some. At just 24 years old, he is now a three-time All-Star who just made First Team All-NBA and is three wins away from leading the Celtics to a title. In hindsight, we also know now that Fultz and (to an extent) Ball have failed to pan out.

Granted, it seems unlikely that the Lakers would have kept and developed Tatum even if they had drafted him. Ball and almost all the Lakers’ other young stars were sent to New Orleans as part of the Anthony Davis trade that eventually netted the Lakers a championship in 2020. But especially with how much love Tatum continues to show to Bryant in these playoffs, passing on him still has to sting for Lakers fans.