Jaylen Brown Praises Jayson Tatum's 'Unselfish Act' of Injury Return Amid Celtics Playoff Push

Jaylen Brown praised his Boston Celtics teammate Jayson Tatum for making the decision to return to the court less than 10 months after suffering a torn Achilles tendon last May.

"First, I want to commend JT for stepping, even taking that notion to be like, 'I want to come back,'" Brown said in a clip shared Friday by the AMP Sports Original Series Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady. "Him even wanting to come back was, I feel like, an unselfish act, putting potentially his body on the line in order for us to accomplish something great.

"We're both on the same page. We had a good talk today about what we want. We talked about the mindset, that we both want to come back and add to winning."

Brown continued, "This is a different group than we've played with before. Younger. We're used to playing with more experienced players, over the last few years. This is a younger group, so it's a different dynamic. They're going to feed off of the energy that we create.

"I think we have a great understanding about what it needs to win. We won for a long time. We know how to find success. So I think that we're on the same page."

Tatum made his season debut when the Celtics tipped off against the Dallas Mavericks at 7 p.m. ET. He joined Brown, Derrick White, Sam Hauser and Neemias Queta in the starting lineup for his season debut.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzula told reporters Friday he had "no clue" whether Tatum would be playing under a minutes restriction in his return.

Tatum suffered an Achilles tendon rupture while playing against the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the second round on May 12.

He underwent surgery the following day before making his come back after less than 10 months of rehab.

The Celtics have remained on track for a playoff berth despite playing without Tatum, going 41-21 to hold onto the No. 2 seed in the East through the first three quarters of the season.

The team will now hope adding their superstar for the final 20 games will give Tatum enough time to get back up to full speed before a potential postseason run later this spring.

Tatum finished the 2024-25 season fourth in MVP voting after averaging 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.1 steals per game in 36.4 minutes per night through 72 games.

He was averaging 28.1 points and 11.5 rebounds through eight playoff games before the injury that ended his postseason and the Celtics' hopes of repeating as champions.

His comeback will start with a matchup against the slumping Mavericks (21-41, No. 12 in the West), who have an eye on the 2026 draft lottery after selling off Anthony Davis at the deadline. The Mavs are heading into Tatum's comeback game on a five-game losing streak, and they've dropped 15 of their last 17 contests.