Jayson Tatum got a strange kind of recruiting pitch in the Bronx on Sunday night.
The Celtics star was at Yankee Stadium for the final night of Jay Z’s three-night concert run, and as he made his way out afterward, a Knicks fan tried to sell him on a move to New York with a wildly over-the-top argument.
“We gonna get you on the Knicks, son,” the fan said. “We gotta get you out of Boston, they too racist out there.
Yo, we’re gonna get you out of Boston. You know they racist.
New York is racist too, but not like Boston n***a. I mean, brother.”
Tatum seemed to smile as the pitch played out. If he expected a little trash talk from Knicks fans after the Celtics won the championship, this was a different level entirely.
Boston’s reputation on this subject has followed the city for a long time, and several players have said they’ve dealt with racist abuse there over the years. Tatum has spoken about that sadness before, but he has also said he has never heard any racist abuse in Boston. He’s made a home there since the Celtics took him with the No. 3 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
For Celtics fans, the idea of Tatum in a Knicks uniform would be a nightmare. The anxiety only grows with the recent chaos around the franchise’s other star, Jaylen Brown, the No. 3 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, who was traded to the rival Philadelphia 76ers. If Tatum somehow followed him out the door and landed in New York, it would send Boston into a frenzy.
That scenario, though, isn’t remotely close to reality. Tatum is entering the second year of a five-year, $314 million contract, he has never shown any interest in leaving, and the Celtics have never put him in trade discussions.
NBA insider Shams Charania said on The Stephen A. Smith Show that Boston has made its stance unmistakable.
“Over the last three, four weeks, while this Jaylen Brown stuff was going on, teams were calling the Celtics on Jayson Tatum,” Charania said. “Their answer was hard stop no.
We’re not trading Jayson Tatum. He’s untouchable.
He’s not on the table. Jaylen Brown, different story.
Open for business, ready to trade him, give us your best offer. So that’s the dichotomy of both of those situations.
“Just so we know from a reporting perspective, like they treated Jaylen Brown different than they treated Jayson Tatum,” Charania added.
Brown has lived in trade rumor territory for years. Tatum hasn’t. The Celtics have clearly valued him on a different level, and that didn’t change even after Tatum tore his Achilles in the 2025 playoffs and Brown finished sixth in MVP voting in 2026.
There had been some real concern about how Tatum would look coming back from that injury, but he answered it in a big way. In 2025-26, he averaged 21.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game.
Less than a year after the Achilles tear, that kind of production was impressive. If that’s the version of Tatum Boston gets next season, he’ll be worth watching every night.
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Walsh said during Summer League that his focus is on becoming a better scorer and playmaker, with the goal of giving himself more ways to stay on the floor late. He knows the margin is thin for wings in Boston, especially with the roster shifting around him, and he has pointed to the need to improve his shot, handle and ability to create his own offense in small pockets. The opportunity is there for him to grow into a bigger role, but so is the pressure to prove he can be more than a specialist when the Celtics need a bucket. [Read more 🡒]