The NBA is full of what-ifs and one of the biggest ones in recent history is what would have happened if the Los Angeles Lakers taken Jayson Tatum in the 2017 NBA Draft.
The Lakers had the No. 2 overall pick and were married to the idea of drafting Lonzo Ball. Meanwhile, Markelle Fultz was the consensus No. 1 prospect in the draft class and he was expected to go to the Boston Celtics, who held the No. 1 pick.
However, Boston pulled off a swap of the Nos. 1 and 3 picks with the Philadelphia 76ers and took Tatum third overall. Years later and the Celtics clearly won the deal as Tatum is one of the best players in the league and just led the team to a title.
In an appearance on the Club 520 Podcast, Tatum recounted how much he wanted to go to the Lakers because of his love for Kobe Bryant growing up but didn’t even get the chance to work out for them:
“No, I mean it definitely worked out,” Tatum said. “The narrative was — it was consensus that Markell was going number one and when the Lakers got the second pick it was like Lonzo was going two. So the Celtics had the number one pick at the time, they came to watch me in Phoenix. So Phoenix was four. I worked out for all of them, they came and watched me. But then somebody, I ain’t going to say his name, but somebody in the Celtics front office was like, ‘Yo, one of the best workouts I’ve seen. Good luck in your career, but we got the number one pick we’re probably not gonna pick you.’
“So at the time, I was like…For me, I grew up a Kobe fan. Like, I always wanted to play for the Lakers. For them to have the number two pick and it was like they didn’t even…it wasn’t even a thought that I was gonna get drafted that was kind of devastating. So I never worked out for the Lakers, they never came to watch me workout.”
Tatum has been open about his love for Bryant, even donning his N0. 10 Team USA jersey this past summer for the Olympics.
There’s no telling what position the Lakers would be in if they took Tatum over Ball, but the Celtics star is certainly doing well for himself now.
Jayson Tatum got tattoo of Kobe Bryant 2023 All-Star Game trophy
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