Jayson Tatum is the best player on the best non-Olympic basketball team in the world.
Something no other former Duke player has ever been able to say.
Tatum led the Celtics in points, rebounds and assists in the playoffs and in the finals. He didn’t shoot well from the field but he was 25 for 27 from the foul line in the finals. That’s 92.6%.
Tatum did all this while being the focal point of the Dallas defense.
Tatum is the only player to ever lead an NBA champion in points, rebounds and assists in the finals and not be voted MVP.
Jaylen Brown deserved the Russell Award. Jayson Tatum deserved it more.
Your mileage may vary.
Which brings me to a couple of questions.
Where does Tatum rank among the NBA’s current best?
Denver’s Nikola Jokic is the consensus best player in the league. There’s a small but clear gap to one of Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid. Top four, although the injury bug has not been kind to the latter two in recent years.
But a case can be made that Tatum is in the top-five mix. And here’s the weird thing. With Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant on the downside of their careers, Tatum is the best American-born player in the NBA.
And time is on his side, as the poet said.
He’s also making a case for himself as the best former Blue Devil in the NBA. Ever.
Duke has produced a lot of really good NBA players, people like Jeff Mullins and Jack Marin and Elton Brand and Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng. An Achilles injury torpedoed Christian Laettner’s chances of pantheon status. Mike Gminski and Corey Maggette played for what seemed like forever at a high level. Current players Kyrie Irving, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson have all made the all-star game.
But only two former Duke players have ever been voted first-team All-NBA.
For six seasons Grant Hill was about as good as basketball gets. Hill was the prototype of today’s NBA wing, a 6-8 stat-sheet-stuffer who could score, rebound, pass and defend at a high level. After being tutored by former Blue Devil Chip Engelland, Hill even became a decent 3-point shooter. In 1999-2000 Hill averaged 25.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game, making 49% of his attempts, 35% from the line, 80% from the foul line. He was a Piston that season.
Hill was voted first-team All-NBA in 1997 (21.2 ppg) and second-team in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. He finished third in the MVP voting in 1997, trailing only Karl Malone and Michael Jordan.
He did all this with a grace and fluidity not often seen on NBA courts.
It all came crashing down late in the 2000 season. An ankle injury, followed by years of surgeries and rehabs and new teams. Hill missed the 2000 Olympics and sat out the entire 2003-’04 season. Hill never got it all back but he was able to average double figures in scoring as late as 2006-’07, at the age of 34. He even made another all-star game in 2005, when he averaged 15.0 pg for Orlando, the second of his four NBA teams.
Best Duke player ever in the pros. No question.
Until Jayson Tatum came along and made first-team All-NBA in 2022. And 2023. And 2024. Tatum averaged just over 30 ppg in 2022-’23, something no other member of the Brotherhood has even approached.
And, of course, Hill never came close to an NBA title. Not his fault. He never played with a team remotely good enough to win it all. Hill played in 39 playoff games in 19 NBA seasons; Tatum has played in 113, a total very much still counting. He’s still 26, for crying out loud.
Speaking of Tatum, he’ll be playing for Team USA next month in Paris.
As will Chelsea Gray, for the women’s team. You may recall her season-ending lower-leg injury late in Las Vegas’ WNBA title run last summer. Gray sat out the first 12 games of the current season but returned last week and should be good to go for Paris.
Tatum wasn’t the only former Blue Devil in the NBA news recently. After being very publicly spurned by Danny Hurley, the L.A. Lakers hired J.J. Redick as their head coach.
You probably know that Redick is very proficient in the basketball arts. A transcendent college player, a pretty good NBA player, a success as an announcer and podcast host.
But there’s one thing missing on his resume. He’s never coached, at least above youth-league level. Not even as an assistant.
The glass half-full side of the equation sees Redick as the next Pat Riley, the next Steve Kerr, the next Doc Rivers.
I hope Redick can pull it off. But he’s taking over a team whose best player is 39, whose second best player will be 32 next March, a team without a clear path to significant improvement and a front-office dynamic that veers towards drama.
I’m really keeping my fingers crossed on this.
Finally, farewell to Willie Mays. Jerry West, then Mays.
I became a Yankees fan in 1958, when I was eight and beginning to figure out baseball. I asked my father who his favorite team was and he said the Yankees and I was eight and he was my father, so that was that.
I wasn’t old enough to reminder Duke Snider in Brooklyn but I was on the Mickey Mantle side of the Mantle-Mays debate.
But no one disliked Willie Mays. He and Ernie Banks and maybe Yogi Berra exuded a love for the game and its fans that sometimes eluded other superstars.
And the consistency. From 1954 through 1966 Mays played at least 151 games every season. He drove in at least 84 runs in 13 consecutive seasons, peaking at 141 in 1962.
Funny thing about that 1962 season. Mays led the Giants to the National League pennant for the only time in San Francisco. He hit 49 home runs, scored 130 runs, drove in 141, with an .999 OPS, for the pennant-winners.
He finished second in the MVP voting to light-hitting Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills, who stole a lot of bases.
Seriously? Mays was so good that maybe he was taken for granted.
Best ever? Scouts talk about five-tool players, hitting for average, hitting for power, running, fielding, throwing.
He aced them all. Maybe Mantle would be in the discussion given better health. Maybe DiMaggio if the Yankees had let him run. Ken Griffey, Jr. makes the cut.
And I don’t know how to compare Mays with Babe Ruth, who couldn’t run at Mays’ level but was a darned good pitcher.
But anyone who wants to argue that Willie Mays was the best ever will get no pushback from me.
He was a titan.
Another excellent and thoughtful column, Jim. You’re right about Tatum being the MVP in the playoffs. I also remember that Luke Kennard was ACC tournament MVP in Duke’s 4 game sweep to the title in 2017 when it so obviously should have been Tatum. I was lucky enough as a child to see both Mays and Mantle play. Willie gets my vote as the greatest ever.
Thank you, Jim, for another wonderful article. I wonder if there was a poll from those of us that saw both Tatum and Hill play, who would have the most votes as who was the greatest Blue Devil to play in the NBA? My vote, Grant Hill. Like you, I saw both Mantle and Mays play back in the day. I even saw Duke Snider play. My vote is Mays for the best centerfielder and best player. Even over my Cardinal, Stan The Man.