Sam Cassell Talking About Jayson Tatum's Recovery Is The Exact Type Of Copium That Every Celtics Fan Needs
Boston Globe. Getty Images.Given that the Boston Celtics fumbled their second-round series against the Knicks and are not about to play Game 2 of the ECF tonight (sigh), all we're really left with as fans are fake trade speculation that will never actually happen and Jayson Tatum injury update copium. That is until the Summer Celts start up in a few months, but in the meantime, that's pretty much it. I can't lie, it's a bummer.
The fake trade stuff can get exhausting because things are so up in the air across the league entering this summer and with the new CBA rules, I get why people do it, but really it's all for nothing. If there's one thing we know about Brad Stevens, it's that he'll probably end up doing something that not a single person on planet earth saw coming.
The Tatum injury copium is a much better way to spend your offseason in my opinion. Early reports that his going under the knife so quickly points to a fantastic and speedy recovery? I'm in. Reports that he's maybe ahead of schedule and is healing like he's Wolverwine? Inject that hope directly into my veins.
Hearing Sam Cassell talk about how he's going to return as the exact same player if not better? Yup, I'm fucking IN
Queue the
"Well what do you expect him to say??" pushback.
Yeah, no shit. Maybe you missed the point of the word "copium". All you can do as a fan right now is get so high off hope that you don't allow your brain to go back to the reality of this injury and what it has meant for pretty much every player who has ever experienced it. Given we're probably close to 500 days before we even see Tatum on a court again, denial is absolutely the path forward in terms of the immediate future. It's sad, it's desperate, but it's also the only choice we have. Nobody heals faster than Jayson Tatum whenever he has any sort of injury, so why can't things be true with this devastating, potentially career-altering injury?
Just allow us to cope in peace please, thank you. If Sam Cassell says Tatum is going to come back and be the same guyif not better then god dammit, I believe! He knows the work Tatum puts in, he knows the person behind the player, he's been in the trenches with him for the last few years, so it's not like this is just some random person giving this opinion.
But there's also another nugget from that clip that I can't help but read more into, and that's how Sam Cassell is talking. He sure as shit sounds like a guy that's going to remain on Joe Mazzulla's staff for the foreseeable, and I for one could not be happier if that's the case. Especially as the team attempts to navigate a Jayson Tatum-less season, I want Sam Cassell involved in that journey.
Given the fact that the Kings, Grizzlies, and now Nuggets have all made their interim head coaches their full time coaches, and with free agent options like Michael Malone, Taylor Jenkins and Mike Budenholzer, it does feel like Cassell's best option might be to stay in Boston. I dunno, maybe that's an additional level of copium given we've seen both JVG and Charles Lee leave after last season's title, so I suppose anything is possible, but Cassell sure did sound like someone who is locked into this group and this organization.
Since it's the Friday before MDW, if you find yourself in a job where you have to gut out the next few hours, go ahead and give the full Cassell episode with Rone and Pat Bev a watch. It's not a bad way to pretend you're working before you get to taste freedom and the official start of summer
