After what looked like a worrisome wrist injury for Jayson Tatum, the Boston Celtics star went out and played for the rest of Game 1 of their series against the Orlando Magic, save for garbage time.
Both Tatum and Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla confirmed afterward that his wrist is fine, seemingly indicating there shouldn’t be any setbacks for the former when the Celtics take on the Magic in Game 2.
However, the fact that Tatum didn’t go back to the locker room or miss any time on the floor after hurting his wrist garnered some skepticism from some NBA alumni about whether the Celtics star truly was hurt or just acting up.
Former NBA wing Chandler Parsons accused Tatum of overdramatizing his wrist injury after landing on it on “Run it Back” to get a favorable call.
“This is the problem. If you milk it and you stay down like that, that helps them go review it and that changes the narrative of a flagrant foul vs. a regular foul, but that’s not flagrant. There was no malicious intent. That’s weak,” Parsons said.
The Celtics were up 89-73 with eight minutes and 28 seconds to go when the foul occurred. Had it been called a common foul, Tatum would have had the chance to put the Celtics up by as many as 18. When the flagrant foul was called, Tatum got the same chance, plus the Celtics retained possession.
Tatum may have overreacted, as he has gotten hurt at the worst time in the playoffs in the past, but it’s hard to prove that he was trying to make sure Caldwell-Pope was called for a flagrant foul.
