SUMMARY
- Recently, Jayson Tatum took to his Instagram to share his son, Deuce Tatum's tribute to the late legendary player, Kobe Bryant.
- In one of the interviews with People, Jayson Tatum opened up about how he wants his son, Deuce Tatum to remember him as a competitor.
Jayson Tatum has been a vocal fan of the late Kobe Bryant ever since he started his basketball journey. From using the same moves as the former Lakers player to being inspired by him despite being over 2,000 miles away, the Celtics star has done it all. Recently, he took to his Instagram to share his son, Deuce Tatum’s tribute to the late legendary player.
His son decided to recreate one of the most popular pictures of Bryant. The picture was captured on 15th June 2001 right after the Los Angeles Lakers and Bryant clinched their second-consecutive NBA Championship winner title. Black Mamba was sitting in the shower stall with the trophy in his hand and seemed upset despite reaching one of the milestones of his career.
Deuce Tatum doing his best Kobe impression 🐍
(via @jaytatum0) pic.twitter.com/Fud4JTE5XH
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 31, 2024
As per Chris Ballard from Sports Illustrated, the reason behind Bryant being sad even after winning the 2001 NBA Championship title was because of the drift from his parents. His father didn’t attend a single game during the Finals and Ballard mentioned that Bryant revealed to the Times himself that the now-iconic picture was about his dad. This same picture was recreated by Jayson’s son in the same pose with the background of a staircase.
The recreation went viral in no time and fans have been reacting massively. One of the fans decided to take a dug at Jayson‘s career which doesn’t have a Champion title yet. They commented, “Deuce already won more than Tatum.” On similar lines, another tweeted, “Deuce casually walking around with more trophies than his dad Tatum.” Additionally, many shared the same opinion that there is so much history behind the picture and it is disrespectful to recreate it.
Jayson Tatum is trying to instill Kobe Bryant’s mentality into his son
In one of the interviews with People, Jayson Tatum opened up about how he wants his son, Deuce Tatum to remember him as a competitor. “On the court [I want Deuce to remember me as] … a competitor, somebody that just always wanted to win,” he stated. This winning and competitive mentality is something Tatum learned from Kobe Bryant himself.
And now it seems like he is trying to instill the same into his son. Tatum explained that every time, Deuce comes to watch him play, he can see that his father is giving it all and doing everything in his power to help the Boston Celtics win. “Because as he gets older, team, sports, that’s what’s most important is winning and everything else besides that will follow,” his words are similar to what Bryant was all about.
Even after Kobe Bryant’s death, Jayson Tatum drops texts to his phone
On the unfortunate day that Kobe Bryant died, a piece of the NBA died. It was a dark day for basketball fans across the globe, and it is still like a fresh wound for them. Jayson Tatum who took Bryant as his inspiration and role model was affected deeply. Even after Bryant’s death, he drops texts to his phone. This is something that speaks volumes about his respect and love for the late basketball player.
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After the Boston Celtics won game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022 against the Heat, Tatum took to his Instagram to share a screenshot of his chat with Bryant. At 4:19 p.m. on Sunday, he texted, “I got you today,” to the late NBA star, aware that he can’t get a response. Notably, in this game, Tatum donned an armband with 24 written as a tribute to Bryant.
