There’s no way around it: The Boston Celtics must win the NBA championship this season.
They’ve been the odds-on favorites to win the whole thing since before the start of the season, and that hasn’t changed to this day.
The Celtics had the best record in the league by a significant margin.
They added two legitimate stars in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porizingis, and they only lost two playoff games en route to the Eastern Conference Finals.
That’s why, regardless of who they face on the biggest stage — assuming they beat the Indiana Pacers — there will be no excuse for this team not to get the job done.
Nonetheless, NBA analyst Alan Hahn is still not sure about their leader.
In the latest edition of Get Up, the ESPN pundit stated that Jayson Tatum simply doesn’t have that ‘it factor,’ which is why you cannot put him in the same conversation as, say, LeBron James in terms of leadership.
"We can't put him in the category of LeBron James. I don't even think he has the 'it-factor' that Luka Doncic has."
—@alanhahn on Jayson Tatum pic.twitter.com/FRr3X5D5eb
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) May 21, 2024
While he acknowledges that Tatum is a very good player, he just doesn’t think he’s got what it takes to lead a team to an NBA championship.
That’s the common narrative around Tatum, who has posted elite numbers since he entered the league but has fallen short when it matters the most, more often than not.
Another shortcoming in this year’s playoff would make it almost impossible for Tatum to shake off that reputation, so he’s probably the player under the most pressure in the NBA right now, and it’ll be interesting to see how he responds to it.
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