The Boston Celtics were unscathed by the Charlotte Hornets. The win came comfortably. However, the end stole the spotlight away from their great performance. Irritation had Grant Williams ‘body check’ his former teammate Jayson Tatum, beginning a spiral of ugly events. After the game, Jaylen Brown wasn’t too happy. “He hit him like it was a football play, Ray Lewis coming across the middle or something,” he said. However, to Joe Mazzulla, he saw a true character in that play.

Just days before the game, the Celtics’ enigmatic head coach spoke about the return of fighting to the NBA. “The biggest thing that we rob people of from an entertainment standpoint is you can’t fight anymore. I wish we’d bring back like fighting” he told NBC Boston. Stephen A. Smith explained the business loss the NBA could suffer. Yer, his wishes were answered by the Celtics. However, rather than expressing pleasure over their rivals’ brutality, he saw a “big time” mentality from his cornerstone.

“What I like most is how he jumped right up, didn’t lay around, it didn’t really faze him. Just got right up, went to the foul line, and did his business. I just like how JT handled it. It was great. To get hit like that, pop right back up, it’s big time,” he noted in his post-game conference.

After sustaining the hard foul, worthy of an immediate ejection, JT didn’t indulge in any confrontation. Mazzulla made his thoughts clear. “I loved it,” he said of the physicality of the game. But Tatum’s focus was locked on closing the game out. He got up and walked to the free-throw line, not saying a word to his former teammate. After the game, Williams did defend himself claiming his intentions weren’t to hurt one of his “closest friends in the league,”.

While that can be debated, it’s hard to argue against Tatum’s intentions this season. Even after a championship, the chip on his shoulder has never been bigger. And his performances thus far indicate one thing.

Jayson Tatum is playing like an MVP

The poise Tatum showed wasn’t the first time he did so. His summer, even though adorned with a championship, was far from emphatic. During the Paris Olympics, he sat most of the games, harboring scrutiny from the basketball community. Yet, Tatum stood and made his goals known. He wanted the MVP.

Prior to the season, given how the Celtics were formed, it became difficult to recognize his individual impact. But to start off this campaign, he has been a savage. It seems Mazzulla saw through his Paris benching. He had a great reason to be happy. In six games, Tatum has scored 30+ four times, including the game against the Hornets.

In the NBA, his 30.5 points ranks the third highest. But that’s not the only facet of the game he has managed to showcase. Defensively, the Celtics’ foundational star has taken an improbable leap. He is averaging 2.2 steals per game. Never has he averaged over 1.4, setting the tone for being acknowledged as a true two-way forward.

The fight to get to this point has been hard. His shot needed repairing. Tatum had to battle against the voices of naysayers, and keep trusting the process. Putting in two workouts daily since returning from the Olympics, the results are blooming in front of the NBA audience. He is shooting a career-high from the field while averaging the most points he ever has so far.

By the looks of him and his demeanor, it doesn’t seem to be a prolific start to the season but rather the benchmark he has set for himself. If this continues, it’s hard t overlook him as the MVP of the league. If he does manage to attain the elusive accolade, where will his legacy stack up among the Celtic greats? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.