{"id":24712,"date":"2025-01-10T08:24:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T08:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=24712"},"modified":"2025-01-10T08:24:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T08:24:30","slug":"joe-mazzulla-responds-to-brandon-jennings-calling-tatum-softest-superstar-in-celtics-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=24712","title":{"rendered":"Joe Mazzulla responds to Brandon Jennings calling Tatum &#8220;softest superstar in Celtics history&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"m-detail-header--dek\">Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla stuck up for Jayson Tatum after recent criticism referring to Tatum as the &#8216;softest superstar in Celtics history.&#8217;<\/div>\n<div class=\"m-detail-header--flexbox\">\n<div class=\"m-detail-header--meta\">\n<div class=\"m-description--list\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fadeawayworld.net\/.image\/t_share\/MjEyMDA5MjkxODE5Nzg4MjY0\/boston-celtics-head-coach-joe-mazzulla-and-boston-celtics-forward-jayson-tatum.jpg\" alt=\"Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) react during the first half against the Memphis Grizzlies at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images\" \/><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Jayson Tatum\u00a0recently came fire after Brandon Jennings called him &#8216;the softest superstar in Celtics&#8217; for failing to win a regular season or Finals MVP in his eight-season tenure.<\/p>\n<p>Boston Celtics\u00a0head coach Joe Mazzulla had a hilarious response to Jennings&#8217; comments in an interview with Zolak and Bertrand,\u00a0implying those words were worth fighting over.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;First thought was, that&#8217;s when you use one of your coins. That&#8217;s a coin.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mazzulla&#8217;s coin reference comes from an interview with Zolak and Bertrand in October where he said the NBA\u00a0should give its players five coins to redeem over a season if they want to fight\u00a0a player.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;What if we all walked around with like five coins, right? And at any point in time, you can just hand one out, and you just challenge a guy to like, combat. If you do pull a coin on a guy and he beats you up, like, that\u2019s your fault. You&#8217;ve got to either train harder, or pick and choose your coins better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mazzulla has a penchant for amazing quotes in his media appearances, with this joining that long list. He stuck up for Tatum in a boisterous fashion, dismissing people&#8217;s opinions and reaffirming Tatum&#8217;s status as a Celtics legend.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s unfortunate that him in particular, but (also) players in general, feel like they have to fight for that constant affirmation. So, the thing that I try to do the most is like, we don&#8217;t have to be affirmed by other people&#8217;s opinions&#8230;\u00a0Jayson is an unbelievable player, a great player, and one of the best Celtics of all time. And the facts speak for themselves.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"m-in-content-ad-row l-inline mm-in-content-ad-row--in-content not-size-a not-size-b not-size-d\" data-ad-group=\"in_content-0\">\n<div class=\"m-in-content-ad not-size-a not-size-b not-size-d\" data-ad-group=\"in_content-0\" data-zone-count=\"2\">\n<div class=\"not-size-a not-size-b not-size-d m-in-content-ad is-empty not-filled\">\n<div id=\"ad-in_content-368db78d1e944ad589be28b96fddddcf\" data-google-query-id=\"CIeV67rc6ooDFRtZwgUdw0otLQ\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><em>&#8220;We just don&#8217;t have to be affirmed by other people&#8217;s opinions, especially when they&#8217;re not in the arena. At the end of the day, that opinion has absolutely no ramifications on his career, his path, the game tomorrow, practice. It just doesn&#8217;t really mean anything.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;In the arena, you have a choice to decide how you&#8217;re going to deal with the power of other people&#8217;s words. They&#8217;re just words. But nothing should ever be taken away from that guy&#8217;s career, in my opinion. The reason why he gets that is because of how good he is.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Tatum is a Boston Celtics legend. While he&#8217;s still miles off someone like\u00a0Larry Bird\u00a0or\u00a0Paul Pierce, Tatum has proven over the last eight seasons that he&#8217;s one of the best players to wear the iconic green jersey.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old has a lot left to prove but has come under regular criticism for failing to win an MVP and losing Finals MVP to\u00a0Jaylen Brown\u00a0last season. Despite that, Tatum is a\u00a0five-time NBA All-Star, three-time First-Team All-NBA selection, and two-time Olympic Gold medallist.<\/p>\n<p>Jennings made his comments on Gilbert Arenas&#8217; &#8216;Gil&#8217;s Arena&#8217; show in\u00a0an argument over Tatum&#8217;s status as an NBA superstar.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"m-in-content-ad-row l-inline mm-in-content-ad-row--in-content not-size-a not-size-b not-size-d\" data-ad-group=\"in_content-1\">\n<div class=\"m-in-content-ad not-size-a not-size-b not-size-d\" data-ad-group=\"in_content-1\" data-zone-count=\"2\">\n<div class=\"not-size-a not-size-b not-size-d m-in-content-ad is-empty not-filled\">\n<div id=\"ad-in_content-ad5d72c65762458ba4f60363149b1077\" data-google-query-id=\"COTahNDc6ooDFSdFwgUdyj0n8Q\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><em>&#8220;Softest Boston Celtics superstar ever&#8230; If you\u2019re so tough, why you didn\u2019t get Finals MVP last year? Why did you let your running mate (Jaylen Brown) do it? If you are so tough, if you do all this, why didn\u2019t you get it? Why you didn\u2019t get it?&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Tatum reacted to this comment with a\u00a0passive-aggressive post on Instagram, mocking what Jennings had to say.\u00a0He&#8217;s averaging 28.1 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 5.5 assists this season, as the Celtics look like bonafide contenders as the No. 2 seed in the East with a 27-10 record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla stuck up for Jayson Tatum after recent criticism referring to Tatum as the &#8216;softest superstar in Celtics history.&#8217; Jayson Tatum\u00a0recently came&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":24726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - 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