Jayson Tatum showed off an essay in which he wrote about where he wanted to be in 20 years when he was in the fourth grade on social media today, which included a goal of playing for the Phoenix Suns.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Tatum wrote that by the time he was 30, he wanted to live in Phoenix, play for the Suns for six seasons and then get traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
(h/t @TheDunkCentral/X, via @JayTatum0/ IG Story)
Jayson Tatum’s goals in the 4th grade:
– Attend one year at Ohio State University
– Have two children, a boy named Justin and a girl named Nichole.
– Live in Phoenix, Arizona.
– Play for the Phoenix Suns for six years
– Get traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
– Play for the… pic.twitter.com/Z5WFJb2CmE
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) July 17, 2024
Tatum has achieved his goal of making it to the NBA and some of the other objectives he set out, including playing for the USA Olympic basketball team and being a one-and-done in college, which was at Duke rather than Ohio State.
The Suns barely missed their chance to draft Tatum too in the 2017 NBA Draft. Tatum was the third pick by the Boston Celtics, while the Suns selected Josh Jackson with the No. 4 overall pick.
A few years ago, Tatum revealed just how close he was to being drafted by and his desire to play in Phoenix on “The Old Man and The Three” Podcast.
Leading up to the draft, the Celtics had the No. 1 overall pick, but traded back to No. 3 with the Philadelphia 76ers a week before the draft. Tatum did not know he was their targeted pick.
This was Tatum’s full story of what happened:
“Phoenix had the fourth pick, so I was in Phoenix (when the trade news came out),” Tatum said. “I went to go meet with the coach and see the facility and see the players and all that. And I remember my agent called me, and I think I had a flight that night to go back home, because this was now like a week before the draft.
“(My agent) was like, ‘Yo, tomorrow, once you go back to St. Louis, I need you to pack a bag because you’re flying to Boston.’ I’m like, ‘Why am I going to Boston?’ He’s like, it’s not out yet, but they’re going to trade the first pick, and they gonna get it to third, and they want to see you work out again.
“I’m like, ‘No, I don’t want to go to Boston because I want to go to Phoenix because it’s nice weather out here. I’ll be able to play. I’m gonna be able to average 20.’ I was like, ‘Boston, they just went to the Eastern Conference Finals. I’m not gonna play.’ I’m like, ‘No,I don’t want to go to Boston.’
“15 minutes later, Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) calls me. I’m like, ‘What’s up coach, how you doing?’ He was like, ‘Hey, I just spoke to Boston, and I think Brad (Stevens) is a great young coach, and I think would be a great fit for you. They’re going to trade the pick, and they want to see you work out again. I think you should go.’
“I’m not going to tell Coach K no. So I’m like ‘Alright, I’ll go.’ I didn’t want to not because I didn’t like Boston, I just didn’t think I was going to play or I wasn’t going to be able to do what I wanted to do.
“I remember I went to Boston four days before the draft, and I had a workout. And I remember I had a sinus infection, so I couldn’t fly. I had to take the train from Boston to the draft, and I had a good feeling, but they still didn’t tell me or my agent that they were going to pick me.
“Even sitting at the draft table, I knew I wasn’t going one or two because everybody said Markelle (Fultz) and Lonzo (Ball) were going first and second. So I had no idea. I figured it would be Boston or Phoenix. I figured I was going 3 or 4.”
Tatum is technically not on Phoenix’s long list of biggest “what if’s” in the NBA Draft given that the Suns did not have a chance to pick him with him off the board, but it sure is fun to think of what him and Devin Booker could have done together.
Booker and Tatum are currently teammates on Team USA for this summer’s 2024 Paris Olympics, as they were for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
WATCH: Devin Booker golfs with Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum in Abu Dhabi
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
