Life worked funny for Jayson Tatum. Growing up, he was drawn to basketball by the Purple and Gold stripes of the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant, the embodiment of a Lakers inspired JT to play basketball. His dream was to continue in the footsteps of his idol. As it happened, he got drafted by the Boston Celtics, the notorious rivals of the Lakers. With a championship in his trophy case and now the frontal star for the Shamrocks, it all worked out for the 26-year-old.

But even though by representation he is supposed to loathe the Lakers, the child within him doesn’t allow that. Recently on an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, he spoke about keeping track of the franchise and watching them from time to time.

“Rooting is a strong word. But I like watching good basketball. I appreciate LeBron so knowing that he doesn’t have that much time left, when the Lakers are on I’ll watch him play,” he said about the Lakers.

But the story itself is put lightly. The Celtics did draft Tatum with the third pick. However, his dream club had the chance to do so too having the second pick in the draft. Their need at the time though was for a point guard due to the departing D’Angelo Russell. Hence, they went with Lonzo Ball, a coveted college prospect who swirled analysts at the time.

Kimmel, a die-hard Lakers fan himself was transparent about their choices. He called them picking Ball over Tatum a “terrible mistake”. And although not holding any grudge at this point, Tatum did nod agreeing with the popular late-night host. As it stands though, the dynamic forward bleeds the Celtics colors and is on track for another sensational campaign wearing their badge.

Jayson Tatum was devastated not to be considered by the Lakers

The 2017 draft class was packed with amazing talents. The consensus number-one pick was Markelle Fultz, a standout at Washington. Lonzo Ball too had created great waves in his single season at UCLA and was a LA native. Hence, it was widely known that they would be the top two picks.

However, at Duke, Jayson Tatum displayed his potential to one day become a star in the league. He worked out with several teams and even spent time in LA training. Still, the Lakers were fixated on the now-Bulls guard. Hence, they didn’t even call Tatum in for a workout. It left him devastated.

“For me, I grew up a Kobe fan. Like, I always wanted to play for the Lakers. For them to have the number two pick and it was like they didn’t even…it wasn’t even a thought that I was gonna get drafted that was kind of devastating. So I never worked out for the Lakers, they never came to watch me workout,” he said on Jeff  Teague’s podcast.

To be fair to the Lakers, Rob Pelinka did make a call to Tatum’s agent to work him out. However, it was too late. Not only had the Lakers made it abundantly clear that they wanted Ball, but when they had the chance, they didn’t call the Celtics ace in. Still, with it being his clients’ wish, Jeff Wechsler decided to speak with Magic Johnson.

Their phone call made it certain. At the time the Lakers had a bunch of forwards. The likes of Brandon Ingram and Larry Nance Jr. flooded the wing position. Hence, Johnson clarified their intention to draft Lonzo Ball. However, he also told Wechsler “we’d like to look at everybody” as the agent said on SiriusXM.

As an agent, he denied the slight chance as he didn’t want Jayson Tatum to travel for a futile workout. Instead, the Celtics got the chance to see him up close and bought into him.