Celtics
“First off, Skip, I need an apology to Jayson Tatum,”
Celtics legend Paul Pierce requested an apology from one of Jayson Tatum’s doubters after the Celtics claimed their NBA record 18th championship.
Pierce called out FS1’s Skip Bayless during a recent appearance on “Undisputed.”
“First off, Skip, I need an apology to Jayson Tatum,” Pierce said. “You ripped him. You said he couldn’t be the guy, he didn’t have the ‘it’ factor, Lonzo (Ball) will be better than him eventually. Hold on, we need to get some apologies out the way before I get started.”
“You did say that. This is all documented. ‘He don’t have the ‘it’ factor. He’s not a dog,’ What else? There’s a lot more. The list is long, but it would take up the whole show for me to go over all of these things you said about him. We just need a short apology. He’s a champion now.”
Tatum became the sixth player since 1980 to lead a championship team in points rebounds and assists, joining Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, and Nikola Jokic.
James and Bird did it multiple times. The others have done it once. Tatum averaged 25 points this postseason, his lowest total since 2019. The Celtics had so many options that Tatum still ended up the team leader. Tatum also averaged 9.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists.
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