Many are keeping a close eye on Jayson Tatum’s return to the Boston Celtics. It sounds like his return is just around the corner, but as exciting as his return will be, many should keep in mind that he is coming back from a traumatizing injury, much like former Utah Jazz star Gordon Hayward, when the two were teammates and the infamous Jazz alum took some time to get back to normal.
The Celtics announced that Tatum would practice with their G-League affiliate, the Maine Celtics, which all but confirmed that Tatum’s return isn’t weeks away, but days away.
Jayson Tatum will be assigned to participate in portions @MaineCeltics practicing this afternoon in the Auerbach Center.
Following this exercise, Tatum will be immediately recalled to the Boston Celtics where he will continue his rehabilitation process.
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 9, 2026
Teams usually do this when they know their guys are about to come back. It won’t be tomorrow, but it’s a pretty revealing indication that Tatum will be back before the end of the month. Boston has done impressively well without him, eliminating a tanking threat for the Jazz, but his addition on paper dramatically raises Boston’s ceiling.
The only problem is that this sounds familiar.
Let’s go back to 2018. After Hayward suffered a season-ending and career-altering injury five minutes into his Celtics debut, rookie Tatum and the Celtics came within inches of making the NBA Finals without Hayward (or Kyrie Irving), so the prevailing theory at the time was that the Celtics’ return to the NBA Finals once they got back felt inevitable, but it didn’t happen.
Hayward wasn’t primarily to blame, but anyone paying attention knew he wasn’t quite himself when he returned. The physical aspect was tough, but the mental aspect was even tougher. Hayward’s impact waned as he had to overcome the mental hurdle of his injury. In short, what took the longest to come back was his self-confidence.
Hayward needed enough reps to get back to normal
The Jazz alum more or less returned to his normal self along the way, but it took two years for him to do so, and even then he regained most of his form, but not all of it. What made matters worse was that after years of being an iron man in Utah, Hayward somehow kept getting bitten by the injury bug.
Even if he was physically ready in a year, Hayward would need two to be Hayward again. In fairness, he and Tatum suffered several career-altering injuries, as the Jazz alum suffered a broken leg and a dislocated ankle in one fell swoop while Tatum tore his Achilles tendon, but still. Both injuries are among the most difficult to overcome.
It won’t be long before it’s been nine months since Tatum suffered his injury. Achilles tears are notorious for opening the door to other injuries, but there have been exceptions. Tatum could very well look like Tatum again as soon as he steps on the floor, but we have enough quantitative data not to be surprised if he takes the same amount of time Hayward (or close) to get back to normal.
#Jayson #Tatum #living #nightmare #jazz #star #Gordon #Hayward #suffered