Josh Hart doesn’t wish to be a part of the Jayson Tatum narrative anymore.
On Thursday, ESPN’s “Get Up” mentioned feedback Hart made on “The Pivot Podcast,” wherein he mentioned Derrick White of the Celtics may be “extra impactful” than White’s famous person teammate Jayson Tatum as a result of White “does every part on the court docket.”
Host Mike Greenberg mentioned the assertion “feels as if there’s a need to decrease Jayson Tatum,” to which Hart took offense.
“Yall understand saying one thing is extra impactful isn’t belittling the opposite man proper?” the Knicks star wrote on X. “Depart me out this ‘need to belittle JT’ narrative.”
Whereas Hart did additional reward White on the podcast look, he didn’t supply a lot in the way in which of compliments towards Tatum.
“Simply impact-wise, I’d put Derrick White as extra impactful than Jayson Tatum,” Hart mentioned on the Pivot. “Take a look at each made play from the final six minutes of the fourth [quarter] to time beyond regulation. Each huge play, he made. He’s in all probability one of the impactful gamers as a result of he does simply every part on the court docket and does every part at a really excessive degree.”
The seeming frustration with the protection of Tatum, the four-time All-NBA ahead, will not be confined to Greenberg, and even ESPN.
Ringer founder and Celtics fan Invoice Simmons famous in his Could 24 podcast episode that the frustration goes all the way in which up the ladder in Boston.
“I do know from a Celtics group, all the way in which up standpoint, they’re actually pissed off with the Tatum protection,” he mentioned on the “Invoice Simmons Podcast.”
“From the sense that he’s 26 years previous, he’s scored extra playoff factors than any participant of their first years ever, he’s made three first-team All-NBA [teams]. He made All-NBA this 12 months.”
NESN, which carries Pink Sox and Bruins video games regionally, has been notably crucial of Tatum by way of the years and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith mentioned that Jaylen Brown is the most effective playoff participant on the Celtics as not too long ago as final 12 months’s playoffs.
Tatum struggled in his final two video games towards the Knicks, the place Hart was primarily assigned, placing up simply 19 factors (42 minutes) and 18 factors (32 minutes) on 42.8 % capturing.
