Sometimes, moments that might ruin an important path in one’s career can have the opposite effect instead, creating a bond due to the absurdity of a situation. And that is how star Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum saw his first introduction to the G.O.A.T. himself, Michael Jeffrey Jordan, go.
The St. Louis native recently re-told the tale on a recent episode of the Wave Sports and Entertainment Original “7 PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony and The Kid Mero” podcast, shedding some light on how his meeting to join the Jordan Brand family nearly went sideways in a major way. Tatum somehow managed to knock a glass of red wine over, making a huge mess as he went to shake his Airness’ hand. “He let me live,” joked Tatum. “This was back in 2019 … in Paris.”
“That’s when I first got introduced with the brand and signed with him,” he continued. “We had dinner that night and I remember I was nervous as (expletive). I got there a little early before everybody else and I see him, his wife, Spike Lee, and they were all sitting at the table across the room.”
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“I had just sat down like they probably (were) busy, I don’t want to interrupt them. My mom was like, ‘Yo, just go say what’s up, they invited you out here,’ and I’m like alright,” said Tatum, sharing how much he was sweating.
“So I get up, and I’m like, ‘Yo, Mike, what up?’ The wine glass … I just … knocked it over, and it broke … He was like, ‘Yo young fella, you’re alright, go sit back down, you’re good’ – but ever since then we’ve been locked in and that’s another person that I will text, I will call.”
And Tatum leaned into that connection, picking MJ’s brain ahead of the 2022 NBA Finals. “I was like, ‘Yo, how’s this going to be? What is it like being in the finals? What should I expect?’
“We talked for a long time, and he’s somebody that he’ll text me after games,” said JT. “So I got his name in my phone as Uncle Mike — that’s my man.”
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