Jayson Tatum Shockingly Passes Larry Bird in Celtics History Books

The Boston Celtics had yet another strong season, reaching 61 wins and finishing with the second seed in the Eastern Conference. Coming off an NBA championship last season, they have a decent shot at winning it all once again.

Jayson Tatum led the way once again, putting up a season statline of 26.8 points per game, six assists per game, and 8.7 rebounds per game.

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The scoring stat line is the one that stands out, as it gives Tatum his fifth consecutive season of scoring more than 25 points per game. That is a franchise record, surpassing Larry Bird’s previous record of four consecutive seasons.

While Tatum has a long way to go to catch a player like LeBron James, who put up more than 25 points per game for 20 consecutive seasons, this is still an impressive milestone, especially for a guy who is still just 27 years old.

Especially with a franchise whose history is filled with top-tier players. It’s not surprising that of all the great players the team has had, Bird was the one Tatum passed, but it is a bit surprising Bird had just four consecutive seasons of 25+ points per game.

Bird for his career averaged 24.3 points per game in 13 years. Tatum has now played eight seasons and is at 23.6 points per game. If he goes on to keep averaging around that number, he could easily surpass John Havlicek as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.

Havlicek played 16 seasons, averaging 20.8 points per game for his career. His only had two seasons of 25+ points per game, which came in two consecutive years from 1971-72 to 1972-73.

To put his career into perspective, Tatum’s accomplishment is cool because he passed Larry Bird, but he is also far from done. There is no reason to believe he can’t keep putting up these kinds of scoring numbers for the next few seasons at least. It might not even be that long until he becomes the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.

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In general, this accomplishment just shows how advanced the NBA and scoring are today. Players in the prime of their careers are setting scoring records, in genera,l players are maintaining high scoring levels for longer, and many of the current era players are reaching the leaderboard for top all-time scorers.

Before Celtics fans know it, Tatum could join the top 25 scorers in NBA history, which consists of six currently active players.

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