Of all the 2017 NBA Lottery draft picks, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum has been the surprising storm of the NBA Summer League.
On Saturday in Las Vegas, Tatum dominated his third game of the summer, tallying 27 points and 11 rebounds in the Celtics’ 86-81 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Behind Tatum’s stellar play, the Celtics squad of summer leaguers are 4-1. He starred in three games in Salt Lake City before the show moved to Las Vegas and his Celtics won a pair.
With a pro-Lakers crowd on hand and No. 2 pick Lonzo Ball on the L.A. roster, Tatum took over early and was by far the best player on the court.
“He reminds me of Paul Pierce,” Celtics summer league coach Walter McCarty had glowing praise for the rookie, saying “He reminds me of Paul Pierce.”
Tatum made 9 of 19 shots, including his only 3-pointer. As for the many Lakers fans in the crowd rooting against him, Tatum said, “It took me back to college (at Duke). I felt like I was playing North Carolina.”
Ball played much better on Saturday than he did in his 2-for-15 shooting debut in the Summer League. He registered a triple-double with 11 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in 34 minutes. He made 5 of 13 shots and 1 of 5 three pointers.
While that delighted Lakers fans, Tatum stole Ball’s spotlight.
Tatum was asked to play is fifth game in seven days – and his first in the second of back-to-back games – and it showed. He had his poorest shooting effort of the summer, closing with 11 points and seven rebounds.
The Celtics did top the Portland Trailblazers 70-64, though.
“Today was a little tougher, back-to-back, I was tired, body was aching,” he said.
“There’s going to be days like this, back-to-back, you’re feeling like this, but the team won so that’s all that matters.”
In his first five games, Tatum averaged 18.9 points and 9.2 rebounds.
“(I’m) just getting acclimated,” Tatum said.
“Be with the team, the coaches, and just get comfortable… It’s a process. I’m getting more comfortable each and every day, it takes time.”
Time is on Tatum’s side.
MLB lacks black bosses
The St. Louis Cardinals’ respective promotions of John Mozeliak to president of baseball operations and his former assistant Michael Girsch to general manager could help the franchise now and in the future.
Unfortunately, it does nothing to help remedy one of Major League Baseball’s biggest shortcomings – a lack of diversity in front office jobs.
According to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, Arte Moreno of the Los Angeles Angels is the lone minority controlling owner.
No minority person has served as president or chief executive of a franchise since 2011.
While there were 10 minority managers in 2009, six years later that number is down to three.
Richard Lapchick, Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport director, recently told the L.A. Times “baseball needs to be concerned.”
In 1999 former commissioner Bud Selig laid out an edict that teams should consider minority candidates for front office job openings. This might have led to an increase, but the numbers have dropped and Lapchick says MLB must set a new course.
“Just bringing in a diverse pool of candidates has not produced the numbers they want. The number is low enough and has been low enough for the past couple years that there has got to be a way to come up with a bigger hiring pool,” he said.
Bill Shaikin, author of the Times article, wrote that Commissioner Robert Manfred has created a 16-man committee to advise owners in “on-field matters.”
It includes three owners, three team presidents, three baseball operations chiefs, four managers and two Hall of Famers, which Manfred calls “some of the best minds in our game.”
Here’s the catch – only two committee members are minorities. One is Latino and the other is Los Angeles Dodgers, one of MLB’s three black managers.
“Our industry, I believe, is suffering as a result of the lack of diversity,” said Tony Clark, MLB Players Association director.
“Diversity offers a perspective and experience that can be a part of the conversation and can’t be replicated any other way than to access the talent that has that history and that perspective and that experience.”
Renee Tirado, MLB vice president of talent acquisition, diversity and inclusion, said “this is not an affirmative action program” in response to the new wave of GMs with no baseball experience but hold Ivy League degrees and/or corporate backgrounds.
He said he is looking for “A+ kids,” adding that baseball has done a poor job of recruiting minorities for jobs before they consider working “at Goldman or Google.”
“I want programs in place in which we take people who make progress in the baseball operations area and work with them on their career path, and on rounding out their skills, so we know we are creating a pool of qualified candidates that are available to take those jobs. And then I want clubs giving a genuine opportunity to diverse candidates,” said Manfred.
“After that, the numbers are going to shake out the way they’re going to shake out.”
My guess is that attitude will little to really shake up the status quo.
Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook and appears on ABC’s The Allman Report and several sports radio shows, including Frank Cusumano’s “The Press Box” on KFNS. His Twitter handle is #aareid.
