BOSTON – Jayson Tatum all the time likes seeing Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett sitting courtside at Boston Celtics games. The Celtics forward notes the love fans show him, which is greater than just respect for being a Hall of Famer who dons the green and white. The respect and admiration comes from “The Truth” and “KG” playing a major role in bringing the 2008 NBA Championship to Boston.

After winning a title himself in Boston in 2024, Tatum feels amazing about having a “footprint” in Celtics lore and envisioned himself sitting courtside at TD Garden and receiving essentially the most love from fans after his retirement.

“In real time, I feel different, like I’m a part of history,” Tatum told Andscape after Celtics practice on Oct. 11. “You see when Paul Pierce, KG, all these guys come back, the pride they’ve because they’re rooted in history. You just feel the energy when these guys come back. They know they did something special. This is what you have all the time desired to do. I do know within the championship I’m on this room. I understand the energy they feel once they come back. It’s a sense of pride, a sense of joy, like you have achieved something special. I hope it is not just me.

To be a a part of Celtics history, you’ve to win a championship. We have already got 18. All the very best players here have won the championship. You are kept to the best standard. You need to win at the least one. It was nice to get it. I’m comfortable about it.”

Given the Celtics’ storied history, Tatum felt a huge weight lifted after winning the championship. He entered the 2024 NBA Finals with five conference finals appearances, one NBA Finals appearance and no rings. Tatum said he was “devastated” after losing to the Golden State Warriors in six games of the 2022 NBA Finals, believing he was playing his best basketball and had a great work ethic.

The five-time NBA All-Star, who scored 11,852 points over seven seasons, is predicted to ultimately go down in history as considered one of the best Celtics ever. But without the title, Tatum knew he really couldn’t be a part of the conversation between the Celtics’ champions. While the 26-year-old is not satisfied with one ring and still has a lot of catching as much as do, he felt winning the title in Beantown finally gave him the chance to face alongside Pierce, Garnett, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and Larry Bird. , Kevin McHale and other Celtics legends.

“It was a big burden. I used to be close again and again,” Tatum said. “I felt, ‘Damn, perhaps it wasn’t imagined to be this fashion.’ These thoughts creep into your mind. In essentially the most difficult moments, doubts appeared. But nonetheless, I knew we’d tear it down at some point. When we did it, it meant every little thing.

On Tuesday night, Tatum and the Celtics will raise the NBA Championship banner in Boston once they tackle the New York Knicks within the first game of the season. The Celtics have won a record 18 NBA championships, yet one more than their rival Los Angeles Lakers. It may even be the first title banner displayed in Boston since 2008.

Tatum is happy to win his first NBA championship ring and at last see the banner he’s a a part of hanging from the rafters of TD Garden.

“I’ve seen opening nights in the NBA for many years,” Tatum said. “I saw teams raise the banner and receive rings. I’m like, “Man, I want that to be me someday.” I have not seen what the rings look like. It can be a surprise for all of us. I could have my family there. My mom and (my son) Deuce (Jayson Jr.) can be on the court with all of the fans who’ve supported us over time.

“This moment can be special. It can be something I’ll treasure for the remaining of my life. You will all the time remember the moment if you won, got your first ring and needed to put it on. That’s what all my favorite players did.

On July 1, Tatum signed a gigantic five-year, $315 million supermax contract extension with the Celtics. Last season, the 6-foot-8-inch, 210-pounder averaged 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and shot 47% from the sphere and earned First-Team All-NBA honors for the third straight season. Tatum has already earned $121 million in his NBA profession, not including off-the-court sponsorships.

Coming from St. Louis, entering his eighth yr in Boston, feels at home in Beantown and is grateful for the way much town and the club have given him on and off the sphere.

“Time flies,” Tatum said. “I used to be drafted in 2017… My son was born here. I purchased my first automobile here. And for me, I love and love the relationships I’ve inbuilt the organization, all of the coaches I’ve had, obviously within the front office, the safety guards, the trainers, the chefs, the fans, the people working on the Garden, the ball boys who do our laundry. The relationships I’ve built during the last seven or eight years, I can not imagine starting over and leaving them or this place.

“Of course, it’s so much more than that and I’m grateful for everything that’s happened to me. But more importantly, they want me to be here. I understand that I have made my mark by helping to build the Celtics legacy. A small part that I feel like I am a part of. There’s a group of 10-year-olds in Boston who will feel like I’m a part of their childhood. “I grew up watching him play at the Garden. I grew up watching him win championships. To be a part of a sports city like Boston is something special.”

With a latest contract and championship in hand, Tatum was next scheduled to move to the 2024 Paris Olympics to play for Team USA Basketball. All the recent joy on the championships was followed by disappointment as Tatum played sparingly en path to winning his second gold medal. Tatum averaged 5.3 points on 38.1% shooting in 4 Olympics and missed two contests.

While Tatum was admittedly disenchanted by the dearth of playing time, he put the Olympics into perspective.

“It was a learning experience. Some things you’ll be able to’t control,” Tatum said. “Everything happens for a reason, whatever that reason may be. But when I look back on my career, two gold medals, winning a championship, All-Star for five years. I’m doing well in life.”

With all due respect, Pierce and Garnett were only in a position to win one championship they usually exceeded expectations. The NBA’s all-time winningest player was Russell with 11 titles. Sam Jones scored 10 for Boston, while Tom Heinsohn, KC Jones, Satch Sanders and John Havlicek each scored eight. Cousy won six. The bird won three. Can Tatum be greater than just a one-time championship wonder?

The Celtics also had not repeated as champions since 1968 and 1969. The last NBA team to repeat as champions was the Warriors in 2018 and 2019. New contract, youth and talented roster, including 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, defensive standouts Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis Tatum believes the favored Celtics are ready for one more banner and says it’s “lots of things” it is advisable listen to for this to occur.

“First of all, it’s our time to understand and take ownership,” Tatum said. “We have amazing opportunities so long as we’ve got this core group together. And constructing last (season). We won’t get credit for it, but we had an historic season in history. We played the fitting way. We played selflessly. The boys continued to attain individual success. We understood the moments when we wanted everyone.

“D-White scored 38 points within the playoffs against Miami. Can we proceed to want more? This just isn’t the time for us to attend for people to attack us. NO. What we did last season (season) was exceptional. But after the ring night (expletive), because in the brand new season everyone seems to be fighting for the championship. We need to play higher from game to game. That’s once we were at our greatest last yr. We didn’t skip any stage. We didn’t care about anyone.

“We struggled in the 2022-2023 season, just wanting to get back to the Finals, but we fell short of Miami. But last season (the season) it was like, no, we have to get better every day, whether we were playing the Lakers and LeBron (James) on Christmas Day or the bottom seed on League Pass. We were closed. It was visible. We only lost 20 games throughout the season, including the playoffs. It was impressive.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) – LeBron James gave his 20-year-old son a pep talk before the Lakers got here off the bench. Amid growing cheers, they approached the scorer’s table together and immediately made basketball history.

LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to play together in the NBA on Tuesday night Los Angeles Lakersopening of the season, fulfilling the dream established a couple of years ago by LeBron, the top scorer in the history of the league.

“That moment when we sat at the scorer’s table together and checked in together is a moment I will never forget,” LeBron said. “No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade with age or whatever, I will never forget this moment.”

Father and son showed up at the same time for the match against Minnesota 4 minutes before the end of the second quarter, which caused an amazing ovation from the fans, aware of the enormity of this vital event. LeBron, 39, had already began the game and played 13 minutes before joining his 20-year-old son for about 2 1/2 minutes of motion.

LeBron James is certainly one of the best players in NBA history, a four-time champion and a 20-time All-Star, while LeBron James Jr. was chosen by the Lakers in the second round of the draft last summer. Are first father and son playing in the highest basketball league in the world at the same time, let alone being on the same team.

“Are you ready? You see the intensity, right? But just play carefree,” the father said to his son on the bench before they checked in, and the exchange was captured by TNT cameras and microphones. “Don’t worry about mistakes. Just go out and play hard.”

Their time on the court together was fast and furious, just as LeBron promised.

LeBron, who finished the night with 16 points, missed two long-range shots before dunking. Bronny had an early offensive rebound and missed a pass, and his first NBA jump shot moments later was a three-pointer that went just wide. Then, with 1:19 left in the second quarter, he called for one possession, which was met with one other ovation.

Bronny didn’t play again Lakers victory 110:103 over the Timberwolves.

“I tried not to focus on everything that was going on around me, but I tried to focus on coming into the game as a rookie and not trying to screw up,” Bronny said. “But yeah, I totally felt the energy and I appreciate Laker Nation for showing support for me and my dad.”

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After the final whistle commemorated the Lakers’ first win in the first game of LeBron’s seven seasons with the team, father and son also headed to the locker room together, but stopped in the tunnel to hug Savannah James, LeBron’s wife and Bronny’s mother. The entire family was in attendance to watch the story unfold – at least to have a good time younger sister Zhuri’s tenth birthday.

Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. were also on the field at the Lakers’ downtown stadium to witness the same history they made in Major League Baseball. The two sluggers played together in 51 games for the Seattle Mariners in 1990 and 1991 as baseball’s first father-son duo.

The Jameses and Griffeys met during the preliminary match warming up before some photos and a warm chat between two amazing families.

LeBron first talked about his dream of playing alongside Bronny a couple of years ago, when his oldest son was still in highschool. The dream became a reality when Bronny entered the draft as a young person after one college season and the Lakers grabbed him with the fifty fifth overall pick.

“I talked about it years ago and it’s pretty cool at this point,” LeBron said. “I do not know if it’s really going to hit us each for a minute, but after we actually sit down and cool down, it’s going to be really crazy. … But immediately, we still had work to do after we checked in. We didn’t want to turn it right into a circus. We didn’t want this to occur to us. We wanted to make it about the band.

LeBron and Bronny joined a small club of skilled athletes who played together on a father-son team. The Griffeys made history 34 years ago, and on September 14, 1990, they even scored a goal in the same match.

Hall-of-famer Tim Raines and his namesake’s son also achieved the feat with the Baltimore Orioles in 2001.

In hockey, Gordie Howe played alongside his two sons, Mark and Marty, for the Houston Eros and Team Canada of the WHA before sharing an NHL season with the Hartford Whalers in 1979-80, when Gordie was 51 years old.

While other family pairings on this list occurred late in their fathers’ careers, LeBron shows no signs of slowing down or regressing as he enters his record-setting twenty second NBA season.

Last 12 months, LeBron averaged over 25 points per game for his twentieth consecutive season and stays the most vital player for the Lakers, together with Anthony Davis, as they struggle to regain the form that won them the championship in 2020 and sent them to the Western Conference Finals in 2023

Bronny survived a cardiac arrest and open heart surgery in the summer of 2023, then played an abbreviated freshman season at the University of Southern California. He entered the draft anyway, and the Lakers were blissful to accomplish that he took advantage of the penultimate selection in a guard draft of 6 feet 2 inches.

LeBron spent the summer in Europe with Team USA, which won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, while Bronny played for the Lakers in the Summer League. They began practicing with the Lakers before training camp.

First the duo we played together in pre-seasonlogging 4 minutes during a game against Phoenix just outside Palm Springs earlier this month.

“It was a real pleasure,” LeBron said during Tuesday morning’s shootaround. “During the pre-season, training every day… introduces him to what professional life is all about and how to prepare every day as a professional.”

The Lakers were fully aware of the history they’d make with this mixture, and coach JJ Redick recently talked to the Jameses a couple of plan to make it occur early in the regular season.

The Griffeys’ presence likely made opening night inevitable, although Redick said the Lakers still wanted it to “happen organically, as the game went on.”

The Lakers are not looking for to speculate on how long Bronny will remain on their NBA roster. Los Angeles already has three other small guards on its roster, and Bronny likely needs regular playing time to elevate his game to consistent NBA levels.

These aspects collectively indicate that Bronny will likely soon join the G League’s South Bay Lakers affiliate. Both LeBron and Redick spoke positively about the South Bay team, saying that player development is a key a part of the Lakers organization.

Miami forward Kevin Love, who knew all of James’ children – Bronny, Bryce and Zhuri – from their days as LeBron’s teammate in Cleveland, said it was an “unbelievable moment” to see father and son playing together.

“I grew up a Mariners fan, so I got to see Griffey and then Griffey Sr. But this is a different situation because LeBron is still a top-five player in the league,” Love said. “This game, man. That’s why we have this TV deal ($76 billion). The plot and the things that happen like that is an unbelievable story. It’s really cool to see that.”

___

AP basketball author Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed.

BOSTON – A recent evening with Jaylen Brown was a manifestation of the true power of sports.

We met in the hall of an apartment constructing in the city center. Dressed in head-to-toe black, with braids pulled back and his beard trimmed low, the Boston Celtics guard was heading to an event as vital as Tuesday night’s season opener for the Celtics, when they’ll receive their 2024 NBA championship rings. Brown was alone – with no bodyguard, agent, or entourage – as I followed him to a black Cadillac Escalade. We went to fulfill with 10 corporations from disadvantaged communities that Brown and teammate Jrue Holiday are helping to develop.

Brown is currently 27 years old and currently on top of the world. Last season, he destroyed the Dallas Mavericks in the championship series each ends of the floorhe cleared up criticism about his play and won Finals MVP. He has the look of a movie star, a song with a rap star, a contract with a superstar – but what brings him to life is making an impact in communities that lack equal opportunities.

“Honestly, I feel better,” Brown said after I asked him to match serving to playing basketball. “I feel answerable for being given my platform to assist influence other people. The only time I actually feel completely satisfied is when I’m attempting to help other people.

“Blacksmithing is like drinking water. It’s like breathing at this point. You don’t really feel anything anymore unless it’s big matches or big moments. But for the most part, I think my platform was only given so that I could help as many people as possible.”

In 2023, after signing a then-record $304 million contract, Brown said he would use his windfall to assist eliminate racial wealth gap. In August 2024, it launched Boston XChangewith the goal of generating $5 billion in generational wealth for marginalized communities, and founded the center in Oakland. Last Wednesday, October 16, Brown allowed me to take him with him to the meeting of the first group of XChange entrepreneurs – Boston Creator Incubator + Accelerator Cohort.

“Five billion is a great goal if you can achieve it,” Brown told me. “But even to proceed to push the boundaries forward. I feel the more relentless we’re in pushing change forward, that is the most significant thing. Keep pushing as a substitute of pretending all the things is high quality where it’s.

We jumped out of the truck and took the escalator to Grace by NiaAND Owned by a black woman supper club in the Boston Seaport District. There was no red carpet or famous guests, just a daily meeting cooks, clothing designers, hatters and more, with academic partners from Roxbury Community College, Suffolk University, Harvard Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Entrepreneurship.

Brown focuses on the “creative economy” – the individuals who make things. The first 10 entrepreneurs include: Dorchester Art Project Down Melanin for hair care down Chess Academy of Future Champions. Each company will receive as much as $100,000 over the next three years, in addition to mentorship, training and work space. Funding is provided by Brown; the JLH Social Impact Fundfounded by Holiday and his wife Lauren; and other philanthropic partners.

“Real joy comes from things like this,” Jrue told me. “Seeing people’s faces when they talk about what they like to do. They’re bustling around, talking about hats, talking about whether you need a cameraman, whether you need catering services, and so on. To me, it shows how powerful we are as athletes that we can help these people’s businesses flourish and make their dreams come true.”

“What’s so special about the Boston cohort is how many people got behind it,” said Lauren Holiday, a former member of the United States women’s national soccer team. “Harvard, MIT, Jaylen’s team, it feels bigger than anything we’ve done before, and it feels like this cohort is surrounded by so many options and so many people who support them.”

During his eight seasons in the NBA, Brown took a revolutionary stand on the establishment, whether that meant difficult police brutality against Black people or the exploitation of the sneaker industry. He positioned his latest sneaker brand as more disruptive statement than a profitable enterprise.

I wondered if Brown saw himself as a disruptor, but he said he didn’t.

“It doesn’t necessarily bother me because I understand the tone, but a lot of the things that I feel like I’ve invented or that I’m a part of are solution-based,” he said.

“By simply disturbing and then running away in the night, you have only disturbed something. Everything I offered was solutions-based, whether it was my shoe company, where I listened to the cries of athletes suffering from a lack of choice and their value being hidden by sports agencies and the shoe industry. And so I created another option. If you look at the wealth disparities here in Boston, people of color felt that it was extremely difficult to start a business and survive the hegemony that existed. So I started Boston XChange. I like to offer solutions.”

My Andscape colleague Bill Rhoden, a pioneering black journalist and writer of the definitive history of black athlete activism, recently reminded us how Brown meets a better standard of athletic greatness: “how fame and visibility are used to advance the cause of justice, respect and freedom beyond arena.” That’s what I saw last week as Brown spread his wealth, access and fame to his first group of entrepreneurs.

They won’t be the last.

“We are building a family,” Brown told me at the end of the evening. “We are building brotherhood, a community of sisters, a collective of people. People of color are coming from underserved communities and giving them those resources, but also building those breadcrumbs for the next generation.”

“Change doesn’t come from one initiative, one person or one entity. It comes from a bunch of people who find themselves committed to doing these items. So we sit up for working with more creators, more investors, and more initiatives in numerous cities and different states in the future. “It’s not about starting something new, but about highlighting what people have already done and using the power of influence – the power of sport.”