Forget the Finals MVP Debate, Jayson Tatum Is the Ultimate Winner of His Generation

For years, despite a number of deep playoff runs, the common take on Jayson Tatum's legacy was annoyingly simplistic:

He hadn't been good enough to take his team all the way to the title.

Following Monday's 106-88 Game 5 demolition of the Dallas Mavericks, that take is dead.

Tatum and his 2023-24 Boston Celtics are NBA champions. Being the last team standing in this era—when the league has 30 teams and the worldwide talent pool is as deep and well-developed as it has ever been—is a monumental feat.

But while plenty of Tatum's detractors have been nitpicking his game and relishing his playoff eliminations, he was quietly building an unprecedented résumé for a player his age. And he's probably not done.

By now, you've likely heard or read the stat. Tatum has more playoff points before his 27th birthday than anyone in NBA history. After Tatum dropped 31 in the series clincher, Kobe Bryant is now second on that list.

But he's more than just a scorer. Take a look at some of Tatum's other ranks among all NBA players prior to turning 27.

• 6th in playoff assists.
• 2nd in playoff rebounds.
• 9th in playoff steals.
• 13th in playoff blocks.
• 1st in playoff threes.
• 5th in regular- and postseason points.
• 6th in regular- and postseason wins.

In an era with heliocentric mega-producers such as Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo, all of the numbers above have flown under the radar. He's never finished higher than fourth in MVP voting.

His game doesn't really attract the same attention as Jokić's absurd passing, Dončić's complete offensive control or Giannis' relentless slashing, either. Heck, even in a series in which he led his team in total points, rebounds and assists, he wasn't named Finals MVP. That went to Jaylen Brown.

His shooting splits (38.8 percent from the field and 26.3 percent from deep) obviously had something to do with that, but so did his steady and not-so-flashy game.

Tatum doesn't dominate the ball like a lot of today's stars. Defense is a big part of his impact, too. And that will always be the less flashy side of the floor.

But even as he struggled to shoot in three of five Finals appearances, Tatum was helping his team win. He was ably taking on difficult defensive assignments, using his length to bother ball-handlers and crowd passing lanes. He was huge as a rebounder. He had 11 assists in Game 5.

"Jayson, I can't talk enough about his selflessness," Brown told reporters after securing the championship. "I can't talk enough about his attitude. It's just how he approached not just this series or the Finals but just the playoffs in general."

One of the hallmarks of this Boston team is its depth. At least six players (Tatum, Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Kristaps Porziņģis and Al Horford) can be trusted to shoot, pass or handle the ball (some more than others on that last one, of course). And part of why that's possible is Tatum's unselfishness.

He's not likely to ever put up the near-triple-double averages that are almost required to be in MVP talks these days. And honestly, he's probably not quite capable of those. Eleven-assist games are far from the norm for him, and his handling can look pretty loose, at times.

But throughout his career, Tatum has done what his team needed to win. He's essentially the prototype for today's three-and-D-plus wing. And even if that doesn't translate into a bunch of individual honors, it has led to lots of winning.

Ultimately, that will be Tatum's legacy.

Since he entered the league in 2017, the Celtics have 428 regular- and postseason wins. That's 20 more than the nearest team.

The Boston infrastructure probably deserves a little credit there. So does Brown. But Tatum is the constant.

The league's winningest team over that stretch has had three different head coaches and played 74 different players. Tatum leads that group in games played, points, rebounds and plus/minus.

He may not collect the same trophies as his peers, but he now has his piece of the most important one: the Larry O'Brien.