PHILADELPHIA — Jayson Tatum was fronting a group of fellow Celtics starters near the corner of Wells Fargo Center Thursday night, watching the final two minutes of his team’s thorough dismantling of the 76ers with a towel around his neck and a smile on his face.
Tatum’s night finished early in the fourth quarter, by which time he’d already recorded a triple-double, with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. While his teammates rained down 3-pointers, led by 28 points from Payton Pritchard, it was Tatum who drove the offensive engine, helping the Celtics roar out of the All-Star break and beat their Eastern Conference rivals by 20 points.
As much as the night was a sign the Celtics might be ready to flip their maddening nightly on-off switch permanently as they rev toward the playoffs, for Tatum, it was one more example in a mounting pile of evidence that a player already among the handful of the very best players in the NBA just continues to get better. On Thursday, his impeccable court vision and smart decision-making in the face of double-teams led to his second triple-double of the season, the first time he’s done that in his career.
That Tatum would continue to notch career first-time achievements seems logical given his relative youth. He turns 27 March 3. But when you consider that Tatum is actually in his eighth NBA season, that he already is an NBA champion, a two-time NBA Finalist and two-time Olympic gold-medal winner, a three-time NBA first-team selection, and a five-time Eastern Conference finalist, it would be easy to consider him cooked, done, a finished product.
Only he would never let that happen. Won’t allow it. He intends to be one of the game’s all-time greats.
“I’m very accomplished at a young age, but the truth is I envision myself as one of those guys: the LeBrons, the Stephs, the KDs,’’ Tatum said. “I want the next generation to view me as that.’’
He wants to be the greatest Celtic of them all. For him, that means surpassing Larry Bird, his fellow Midwesterner who proved long ago that playing forward didn’t preclude being a supernatural passer, that putting team goals first doesn’t thwart individual greatness.
“Wearing a Celtics uniform comes with a lot of pride, and the best Celtic ever is Larry Bird,’’ Tatum said. “Even if I never reach that — maybe I do, maybe I don’t — if you aspire to chase that guy, it comes with a level of focus and motivation every single day to be the best you can.’’
That was Tatum after the 76ers win, when I asked him what continues to fuel him through his career. Given his past eloquence about not using perceived slights or personal stakes as motivation, reflected in his classy reactions when Steve Kerr barely played him in Paris, when Finals MVP honors went to teammate Jaylen Brown, or even when the NBA’s next big thing Victor Wembanyama visited TD Garden just before the break, it’s no surprise Tatum focuses on what can be done, rather than what needs to be undone.
For him, that begins with the Celtics defending their title this season, the next step to approaching the rarefied air that Bird (or some would argue, Bill Russell) inhabits in the heart of Celtic nation.
“I think you just realize at a certain point that you might be on a trajectory of whatever people want to call it, have a legendary career or an all-time great or whatever,’’ Tatum said. “And just, you see the impact that [Bird] had on the game of basketball and obviously with the Celtics, winning three championships, winning three MVPs in a row, which is incredible. You just suddenly start to see that, you know, you both scored 60 points in a game, and you start getting mentioned in [achievements that] the only other Celtics to do this.
“And then, obviously, once you win a championship, it’s like, all right, you can be in those rooms with the Celtics legends. But it doesn’t just stop at one. You’ve obviously have to win multiple, and that’s what we’re trying to do. And I always wanted to be the best. He’s, in my opinion, the best Celtic ever. He did it the right way. And he’s a great guy to chase, in a sense.’’
At this rate, they might all end up chasing Tatum. He topped Kobe Bryant and James with the most playoff points ever for a player before his 27th birthday, and his 68 postseason wins are behind only Bryant, Tony Parker, and Magic Johnson for most at this age.
He may be quiet and unassuming in the personality department, but as a competitor, as a worker, he is top tier. The completeness we are seeing this season is MVP worthy (watch out Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), reflecting an evolution away from the score-first, iso-ball, turnover tendencies that have hampered Tatum in the past.
“The honest answer is he’s been doing this a long time,’’ said Joe Mazzulla, the coach’s requisite dose of defensiveness underscoring his words. “But people just take advantage of him and take it for granted.
“So he’s been doing this for years, but he obviously has continued to get better. Where I think he’s grown is I don’t think he scored in his first stint. He came out at the 5½-minute mark [against Philly] and he may have had 2 points. So he’s just not being defined by scoring. And he has an understanding of being patient with the game, knowing how to manipulate the game and knowing when there’s spots to have the game come to him. He gets just as much excitement when he makes a two-on-one read for the right pass to the corner as he does making a three.’’
Not unlike a certain floppy-headed blond from Indiana. Bird and Tatum met briefly at last year’s All-Star Game in Indianapolis, and their mutual admiration thrilled the young Celtic star.
“He’s a lot taller than I thought, but I ran over to him, and I was like, ‘Man, it’s an honor to meet you,’ ’’ Tatum said. “And he was just like, ‘Likewise. I love watching you play.’ And happy for my success. So that was just a cool moment. Just one of the greatest players of all-time acknowledging you, even if it’s for a brief moment. Just, as a young guy, it’s something that I’ll always be able to cherish.’’
And work to eclipse.
“I’m far from a finished product, right?’’ Tatum said. “[I’m] 26. I’ll be 27 in, like, 12 days (March 3). But I’ve made tremendous strides since Day 1, and I think one thing I’ve been good at is I never was complacent. I steal from guys in the league. I watch a lot of film. There’s a lot of things that I just want to continue to get better at. I think I still have a long way to go from being the best version of me. And I think that really excites me.’’
Exciting for the Celtics, scary for the rest of the NBA.
Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at tara.sullivan@globe.com. Follow her @Globe_Tara.
