Jayson Tatum claims participation in 'Starting Five' was down to confidence in winning championship
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum was one of the five NBA players featured in Netflix's Starting Five docuseries. Filmed throughout last season and released ahead of the 2024-25 NBA season, the series followed Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, Jimmy Butler and Domantas Sabonis, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at their lives and the 2023-24 NBA season.
As Tatum and the Boston Celtics look to go back-to-back as NBA champions, he opened up on why he decided to take part in the series while speaking to media members this week.
As he explained, Tatum decided to participate for two reasons. First because of the historical precedence of participating in Netflix's first basketball series that followed players throughout a season in real time, and second, because he was confident that the Boston Celtics would win it all.
"I watched Quarterbacks, and, you know, when they came to me with the idea, at the time, he said Lebron was in it. And honestly, he was like, 'Yo, you could wait till season two, and, you know, obviously LeBron's in it, and you could maybe be the star in season two.'
"And I was like, 'No, like, I want to be a part of the first one.' And I was like, 'I think we're going to win a championship,' and we did."
Jayson Tatum opens up on emotions that came with watching the final episode of Starting Five
Leading up to the start of the 2024-25 NBA season on Oct. 22, where Jayson Tatum and the Celtics will host the New York Knicks, the five-time All-Star decided to skip to the last episode of Starting Five.
In the last episode, the docuseries takes a look at the Celtics' championship win over the Dallas Mavericks, which, as Tatum explained, made him emotional to look back on. He said:
"I ain't gonna lie, I skipped to episode ten last night. I just wanted to see what that was like. I was, like, emotional in a good way. Like, reliving those moments of accomplishing a lifelong dream and all the behind-the-scenes stuff.
"It made me really joyful last night to watch that on TV and just relive that moment of us winning a championship."
Following a busy offseason that saw Jayson Tatum win gold with Team USA in Paris, he and the Celtics now have their sights set on going back-to-back as NBA champions.
While many championship teams often experience quite a bit of roster overhaul following a championship win, the Celtics will have their entire starting five return this season.
At the same time, key role players like Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet will all be returning this season as well. Considering that, the team is sitting as heavy betting favorites to win it all this season.