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Jayson Tatum, September 2025
Credit: Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- NBA star Jayson Tatum suffered an Achilles tendon rupture in the final minutes of Game 4 of the NBA Eastern conference semi-finals on May 12
- The Boston Celtics forward, 28, says when the injury occurred, his career "felt like it was all taken away"
- Ten months after his injury, Tatum is returning to the court on March 6. He tells PEOPLE exclusively about his "emotional" decision to come back
For the past 10 months, Jayson Tatum has been surrounded by speculation: When will the NBA star be back after rupturing his Achilles tendon last May?
Even at home, he's been hounded by his biggest fan, his 8-year-old son Deuce. "He's asking me all the time, 'Dad, are you ready yet? Are you playing today?' " Tatum tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview about his decision to return. "I was like, 'Deuce, I promise, you'll be the first person I know that I'll tell when I know I'm coming back.'"
Deuce may have gotten the news early, but on Friday, March 6, Tatum is giving many fans what they were hoping for: the 28-year-old Boston Celtics star forward confirms to PEOPLE that he is returning for his first NBA game in more than 42 weeks, joining his team at home to face the Dallas Mavericks tonight.
Stepping onto the court for the first time, "I might be emotional, but I'll be excited," Tatum says. "I'll be anxious. And I'll just be proud of myself that I made it to that point. There's been some long days over the last 42 weeks."
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Tatum on May 12, 2025 after his injury
Credit: Elsa/Getty
Despite reports circulating all week of his imminent return, Tatum's decision to play tonight was truly a game-day decision. Even some in his inner circle didn't know for sure what he would choose to do until shortly before the game.
Tatum was medically cleared to practice in early February and cleared to play at the end of the month, but it took longer for him to feel psychologically ready, he says. The way he feels now is "night and day" compared to the beginning of the season, "and physically you're clear, you can do all the things," he says. "But it's a long time that I haven't competed or played in a game. That mental hurdle is a real thing."
Tatum's ordeal began last year on May 12 with a misstep in Game 4 of the NBA Eastern conference semi-finals. Writhing in pain, he was helped off the floor and brought to the locker room, where he was inconsolable, he told PEOPLE last year: "I literally sat there and cried for two hours 'cause so many things ran through my mind: 'Damn, is my career over? Am I going to get traded? ... My basketball career flashed in front of my eyes," he said in October.
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Jayson Tatum after his May 2025 Achilles tendon injury
Credit: Jayson Tatum/Instagram
It was difficult to accept stepping away from the game he loves, even temporarily. "The thing I've done my entire life, as early as I can remember, was snatched away from me. That's been a very tough pill to swallow," says Tatum now.
He pushed himself day after day through physical therapy, working out and navigating the pain of his injury. "I've worked relentlessly to get back to myself, to get back to 100%, to go out there and compete," says Tatum, who after his injury partnered with Vertex, the pharmaceutical company behind Journavx, a non-opioid, oral medication for treating moderate-to-severe acute pain that he used to manage his own pain in the weeks after his injury.
Tatum says at first he was worried that the memory of his trauma might affect his confidence on court. "When I started doing basketball workouts and start playing pickup and four-on-four and five-on-five, I used to think, 'Oh, I'm going to be scared when I get back out there,' " he says. "It was kind of the opposite. In a weird way, when I got back on the court and I had a ball in my hand, it just felt like I was at home. It just felt like I was in my natural state of like... I was born to do this."
Now, he says, in his mind, his injury is truly in the past: "Things happen that you can't plan for, and it happened to me and we move forward. But I can honestly say, when I've been back on the court, I don't think about it at all."
He's stayed positive during his time healing in part because of support from his family — including his mom, Brandy Cole, and sons Deuce and toddler, Dylan, whom he shares with girlfriend, singer Ella Mai — and who now calls out "Da-da" when he sees a close-up of Tatum on the screen. "In the times where I would doubt myself or I felt the smallest person in the world because I wasn't able to do what I loved, Deuce would be like, 'Dad, can we go outside? Dad, can we go swimming?' If I never make another shot, Deuce thinks the world of me. Him just being an innocent kid, without him even knowing, has really helped me."
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Tatum with his son, Deuce
Credit: Jayson Tatum/Instagram
Tatum knows that some pundits have questioned the wisdom of his returning this season and have urged him to wait — after all teammates like Jaylen Brown have been able to take the Celtics to second place in the NBA Eastern Conference with six weeks left until the playoffs. But Tatum says he knows he's ready. "Everybody has their own opinion, which is fair. But you just got to understand, I'm the one that's going through this. I've talked to doctors, specialists, people that are way smarter than me. Those are the people that I lean on and I know how I feel."
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Tatum with sons Deuce and Dylan
Credit: Jayson Tatum/Instagram
Will he be the same Jayson Tatum who was a six-time NBA All-Star and who led his team to a championship in 2024?
"I understand the magnitude of the injury that I had, and it's not like the first day I step on the court that I'm going to be who I was in the playoffs last year," he says. "I understand there's going to be a grace period or progression. I want to feel like wherever I start, I'm trending upward to get back to who I was. And I have no doubt that is possible."
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Tatum in the NBA playoffs in April 2025
Credit: Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty
For now, he says, he's looking forward to the familiarity of his game day routine that he's been missing for nearly a year: waking up, having breakfast, working out, lifting, getting into a cold tub, lunch and then a nap. And then, two hours before the game, arriving at the arena, getting his shots in before showering and then, at long last suiting up.
"I know it's going to be a lot of emotions and a lot of distractions but I'm going to just try to make it like a regular day," he says. "It's been a long journey, so I'm just ready to feel normal again."
Read the original article on People
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