Jayson Tatum Wore Kobe Bryant's Exact Outfit From His Celtics Workout For Practice Before Game 2

Jayson Tatum's deep admiration for the late and legendary Kobe Bryant has been made apparent during these playoffs. The Celtics man is pushing for the first title of his young but already highly successful career, and has honored Kobe several times along the way. He wore a No. 24 armband in the deciding Game 7 against the Miami Heat, a game during which the Celtics clinched their NBA Finals berth

After the game, he spoke about why he wore the armband before it was also later revealed that he sent a text message to Kobe's old phone number. Despite the historic rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, the personal connection between the Celtics' latest superstar and the Lakers legend runs deep.

And it's easy to forget that despite being arguably the most beloved Laker ever, Kobe did almost go to the Celtics. Before he was drafted in 1996, Bryant worked out in Boston, even wearing an outfit with the Celtics logo on it. And in his latest tribute to Bryant, Tatum was spotted wearing that same outfit at practice ahead of Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Jayson Tatum is dressed for practice exactly like Kobe was for his Celtics workout.

The Celtics haven't used that logo since 1996, so there's no way this was a coincidence considering Tatum's well-known admiration for Bryant. The fact that he continues to pay his respects to Kobe throughout this deep playoff run is as fitting a tribute as a player can give Kobe, especially if he can lead the Celtics to a championship.

Boston has a lot of reason to believe that they can take that step too, especially after their comeback win against the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 despite Tatum's horrific 3-17 shooting night. Tatum will be hoping to have a few more opportunities to honor Kobe, and one of the best ways he can do that is to come out hot in Game 2 and play well to give the Celtics a commanding lead heading back home for Games 3 and 4.

Comments

From Deep: At long last, Nikola Jokic's Nuggets can envision getting to the top of the mountain

Jamal Murray tore his ACL on April 12, 2021. Leading up to that night, he'd been playing at an All-NBA level for two months: In a 25-game stretch, Murray averaged 24.1 points on .509/.459/.935 shooting splits, 4.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists. He was even more efficient than he was in the bubble playoffs, and his defense had improved, too. Murray only got to play with Aaron Gordon, the Denver Nuggets' big trade-deadline addition, for five games. They won them all except the one in which Murray got injured. In 110 minutes, their new starting five scored slightly more efficiently than any iteration of the Kevin Durant-era death lineup in Golden State and defended like a top-five team. Two Nikola Jokic MVP awards later, Murray is back. So is Michael Porter Jr., who signed a five-year extension about a year ago and needed back surgery nine games into the 2020-21 season. The Nuggets remember how easily everything slid into place with Gordon in the mix. Newcomer Kentavious Caldwell-Pop...

Klay Thompson to sit out Warriors preseason games in Japan as Kerr says he needs more time to ramp-up

Klay Thompson may have returned healthy to the Golden State Warriors last season, but the scars from his two missed seasons are still quite visible. The Warriors played their first of two preseason games against the Washington Wizards on Friday and will play another on Sunday, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that Thompson will not be playing at all during the trip to Japan. "Just feel more comfortable giving him a little more of a ramp up," Kerr said before Friday's victory over Washington. "He's just not quite ready to play at this point just based on where, you know, we're so early in camp. We just want to be safe and make sure he gets a good ramp-up before he plays in games." Typically, so little time to ramp up wouldn't be a problem for a veteran in a preseason context. The games tend to be so low-impact and demand so few minutes out of a team's best players that they can safely jog through them. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green played 1...

LeBron James says he has 'no relationship' with Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

It's not a matter of if LeBron James passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the No. 1 spot on the NBA's all-time scoring list, it's when. James sits just 1,326 points away from passing the Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Lakers legend, a milestone that should happen at some point this season given James is still performing at peak levels and is coming off a year in which he averaged over 30 points a night. If he averages around the same amount of points as he did a season ago for the Lakers, James could break the record somewhere in the middle of the season, assuming he stays healthy. It's a highly anticipated moment heading into the season, but in regards to LeBron's thoughts about and his relationship with Abdul-Jabbar, he didn't have much to say on the matter. Following the Lakers first preseason game Monday night, a reporter asked James what his thoughts were on the Lakers legend and if the two had any relationship, to which LeBron gave a very short answer. "No...

Crossover World

Search This Blog