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You’ve seen him sitting courtside at home games. You’ve seen him stretching with his pops pregame. And you’ve seen his name written in Sharpie on his dad’s Jordans. Deuce Tatum has seen his father’s rise to the top of the NBA, including in 2024, when the Boston Celtics won their 18th title.
But he’s also seen him at his lowest. For fans, watching Jayson go down in last year’s playoffs was painful to witness. For 8-year-old Deuce, it had to be even worse. What’s it like to see your hero in pain? To see your dad push through a painful rehab? And to see him work so hard and succeed? It takes a lot of heart, a lot of love and maybe some Red Hot Riplets. Here, Deuce explains it all.
When Daddy first got injured, I felt sad. To try to make him happy, I would give him a hug or tell my brother Dylan to come over and cuddle with him. I’d ask my dad what he was sad about and give him ideas on other things to do instead of doing whatever he’s sad about.
I remember after his big surgery, he would sit down on the couch, resting his foot on this pillow sort of thing, because he couldn't put his foot down. He had his foot in a cast, and he was walking around with this little thing that he would put his knee on and roll around, or, he was walking with crutches. He was going to his room, taking showers—he was trying to get back in the game as fast as he could.
If he needed help and wanted to get on his crutches but he was on the scooter, I would take the scooter and put it wherever he wanted it to stay. Sometimes Nick [Sang, the Celtics trainer] would take it. When we went in the sprinter to go places, he would go up the stairs and I would take his walker and fold it up for him, then I would carry it up the stairs and give it back to him.
When he first got hurt and was on the scooter, I used to make Daddy go outside and watch me play outside. One time, I was shooting and was like, Well, since you’re hurt, I can beat you now ’cause I can make the layups easy. Daddy was like, Dang, that’s not cool, bro!
During rehab, sometimes I went to the practice facility with him. That’s where he got to do stuff on the scar. If I asked, What is that on your foot? He would say, Well, that’s my Achilles. Right now, Nick is fixing it, putting stuff on it so I could feel better and get to the games.
Daddy always tells me to be brave. One time, I was going to go on a roller coaster, I was afraid to, and he was like, What are you going to tell your brother when you tell him to be brave? If he is brave, then you have to be brave. So, he told me things to make me feel more comfortable to go on the ride. And I went on that ride!
He helps me in so many ways. He helps me with basketball so I can be better. I’m sure, if there was an emergency, like a fire, he would help me get out of the house. And when I grow older, if I was in a car crash, he would say, Are you OK? He would come and pick me up in his car.
One good thing about the injury that I like is that me and Dylan got to do stuff with him,
like lay with him and do fun things with him. I was happy that I still had someone to play with. One snack Daddy had a lot of was Red Hot Riplets.
In his first game back, seeing that he made a three, and that people were cheering for him [again], that was really exciting. If I could pick a superhero name for him, it’d be #0, Big Daddy Superhero!
After seeing Daddy go through surgery and physical therapy, on a scale from 1 to 100 for how tough he is, I would say he’s a 79. Because he’s not as strong as, like, bodybuilders and stuff, but he is really, really, really strong.
I don’t think I was ever scared that he wouldn’t play again, but it did take a long time. Last year he couldn’t even walk! I knew he would always get back to being his old self, because he practiced. He got treatment, he played basketball. He worked really hard to play basketball. He told me, he was working hard to get back to play basketball again.
I’m proud of my dad. But I’m also so happy for my dad that he’s winning games now that he’s playing, and that he can keep winning games so he can get ourselves to the championship.
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