Jayson Tatum’s Victory In The Skills Competition Was The Highlight Of All-Star Weekend
The biggest Celtics stories heading into All-Star Weekend included Kyrie Irving’s “controversial” decision to play in Sunday night’s All-Star Game (and coach Friday’s Rising Stars Challenge) despite missing Boston’s last two games heading into the break.
There was also all the nauseating speculation about what is going on in the mind of Anthony Davis. We don’t know where he’s going and we won’t know until he goes there, so we all create a bunch of potential scenarios to give ourselves something to talk about. And you already knew Kyrie’s interactions with AD and other potential free agents this past weekend would be completely overanalyzed, so those storylines got old real quick.
That’s where Jayson Tatum came in and saved the weekend by turning the attention to his performance on the court. As well as playing in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday, Tatum stole the show in the Taco Bell Skills Competition the following night with the wildest finish in the history of the contest.
He trailed in all three rounds but he buried his threes when other guys didn’t, finishing off Trae Young with an incredible half court shot in the final:
Of course J. Cole’s halftime performance was phenomenal and blew Maroon 5 out of the water, but as far as on-court action nothing topped this. Maybe the dunk over Shaq, but 5’9″ Nate Robinson once dunked over Dwight Howard and Vince Carter stuck his arm in the rim 19 years ago, so we’ve seen all that before.
A few weeks ago, 22 year-old David Pastrnak won the Accuracy Contest at the NHL All-Star Weekend festivities. This past weekend, 20 year-old Jayson Tatum snagged a trophy of his own. The future is bright.