Paul Pierce Talks About Reaching Out to Tatum During His Injury

When Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles in the playoffs last season, the entire Celtics family hurt. The Celtics looked like they could be on their way to another shot at an NBA championship when their best player went down, and Beantown felt the pain. 

Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce was recently asked if he reached out to Tatum while he was recovering from his injury. Here’s what he said:

“This will be my first time today, seeing him saying something to him. So, you know the thing about, I know about guys when they get in a situation Jayson was in, you know, I had to be, I had a chance to be around Kevin [Garnett] when he was going through his injury and stuff. Sometimes you want to give people some space. I did. I reached out to him one time, I think, via text throughout the process. But, you know, I think it's a moment to where you want to put yourself in a place, to where you're isolated and you want to grind, you want to work to get back where you need to go. And I'm sure everybody was showing support, but I showed my support from far, and he knows I'm always there for him if he ever needed anything.”

It sounds like Pierce tried to reach out but never heard back from Tatum. Pierce didn’t take it personally because he knows what it is like to recover from an injury. Sometimes, a player just wants to lock in on rehab and not have any outside distractions. 

Whatever Tatum did seemed to work. He recovered faster than most players do from an Achilles tear, and he’s already back on the court. He’s averaging 19.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in just eight games back.