Jayson Tatum: Team USA basketball star on Paris 2024, mental health and helping escape the presidential election

The five-time NBA All-Star led the Celtics to a league-best 64 wins last season, averaging 26.9 points himself.

Despite standout performances throughout his career in Boston, prior to this season, they had been without a championship since 2008.

Tatum came close to lifting the trophy in 2022 but lost in the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

The Celtics then went on to lose in the 2023 eastern conference finals to the Miami heat.

These losses led to a lot of scrutiny around Tatum’s ability to deliver a championship, not only on social platforms but also in the media., external

Reflecting on this scrutiny, Tatum told BBC Sport: “It was a process and you just have to go through it to learn how to deal with it. The older you get, the more time you spend in the league – the less you start to care.

“You have to have an outlet, right? Whatever that may look like, you need something to get away from it all,

“Don’t get me wrong, basketball is extremely important, but it is not everything, and you can’t let that be the sole purpose of your happiness – it will drive you crazy.

“Whatever you do, it will never be good enough, so you can’t keep trying to get justification from other people.”