Tatum was brutally honest about why he didn’t alley-oop Grant Williams originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Sometimes you just gotta call it like you see it.
During the fourth quarter of the Boston Celtics’ 129-106 rout of the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center, Jayson Tatum and Grant Williams broke free for a 2-on-1 fast break.
As Tatum approached the basket, Williams signaled for the alley-oop. Tatum declined, taking it himself for the slam.
Cameras caught Williams saying, “Oh wow” as Tatum elevated for the dunk, and Tatum was asked after the game why he didn’t throw his teammate the lob.
Celtics set another record for dominance on the road
“First of all, I love Grant to death,” Tatum began, carefully constructing his compliment sandwich. “But he had a better chance of just calling for the ball, I think.
“When he pointed up is when I made the executive decision of taking it myself. Because I think, I don’t know — if Grant has caught an alley-oop, he’s probably caught two or three in his whole career.”
Translation: Tatum is not a huge believer in Williams’ athleticism.
To soften the blow of that hard truth, Tatum explained to his teammate that he only feels comfortable throwing lobs to Robert Williams and Jaylen Brown.
“I just told him, on the fast break, there are two guys I’m going to throw the lob to: Rob and JB,” Tatum said. “Grant is a lot lower on that list. So maybe we can practice it, but in-game, I did not feel comfortable throwing Grant Williams an alley-oop on a fast break. So, I decided to just take it myself.”
Tatum’s friendly ribbing led Williams to dig into the archives, retweeting this old clip of him converting a successful alley-oop at Tennessee as well as a message of support from Celtics Blog’s Jack Simone.
Will that one video convince Tatum to throw it up for his teammate next time? That remains to be seen. But we should note that Tatum and Williams are very close, so this back-and-forth was all in good fun.
“Obviously he’s a key part of our team and what we’re trying to do moving forward,” Tatum said of Williams. “Just having another guy who can make plays off the dribble, especially driving closeouts and things like that. Everybody feels comfortable with Grant doing that because we see the work he’s puts in.”
Williams’ next chance to catch a lob from Tatum will come Saturday at 12 p.m. ET against the Pistons in Detroit.
