Tatum flashes mad skills, wins hardware
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After falling behind in the first two rounds, only to win both on smooth 3-pointers, Jayson Tatum had his touch from the top of the arc to thank for winning Saturday night’s Skills Challenge at All-Star weekend.
Tatum trailed Trae Young in the early stages of the dribble/pass/shoot obstacle course, but he pulled up from deep as the Hawks guard reached the 3-point line, burying a 30-foot shot for the win a flash before Young’s miss hit the rim.
“He was getting close, about to shoot it,” Tatum said. “If I’m going to lose, I’d better get up a shot attempt. Let me throw this up . ... I thought I’d at least knock his ball out of the way.”
Considering the 30 points the Celtics forward scored a night earlier while helping the U.S. team win the Rising Stars Challenge, it was quite a weekend.
“A lot better than last year,” said Tatum, who won his head-to-head matchups against Memphis’ Mike Conley and Denver’s Nikola Jokic in the first two rounds. Overall he shot 3-for-4 from downtown in the competition, with his first shot against Conley his only miss.
“I played well yesterday. We won, so that was good. We lost last year,” he said. “And I got the opportunity to participate in Saturday night this year. I get to leave with some hardware.”
Love from LeBron Kyrie Irving’s second season with the Celtics has
been filled with introspection, some that led the AllStar guard to call and apologize to his formerly estranged teammate, LeBron James, during a particularly trying road trip last month.
Though Irving offered the information to local media at the time, he remains protective.
When asked yesterday about his relationship through the years with the Lakers star, Irving told the reporter, “None of your business.”
James was more expansive. Indeed, he expressed significant compassion for his former Cleveland teammate.
“I’ve always loved Kyrie, from before I met him to when I became his teammate to even now,” James said. “I’ve always thought he was special.”
James considered Irving’s call particularly revealing.
“The phone call — more than for me, I think just to see his growth,” he said. “It takes a real man and a real person to understand who they are to be able to call or to do anything and be able to see their wrongdoings or believe they have some wrongdoings and then be able to come to grips with that and be able to either apologize or say that, ‘At that point in time, I thought I was ready for something, but I really wasn’t.’
“I really don’t want to talk about it too much because it’s not for everybody,” James added. “It’s not for the media to be able to start writing things . ... I love Kyrie. I love everything about Kyrie. I’ve loved his family. I definitely love his shoes and his game, and my kids love his shoes and his game too. So it’s all good.”