The 2017 NBA Draft could have gone a number of different ways at the top. The Celtics, who had the No. 1 pick, could’ve simply stayed put and taken Jayson Tatum. Instead, they pulled one of the all-time heists — in hindsight, at least — by trading down to No. 3 with the Sixers, who moved up to No. 1 to take Markelle Fultz.
Boston wound up getting its guy in Tatum anyway, plus another first-round pick from Philadelphia. But the Lakers, who had the No. 2 pick, could’ve throw a wrench in Danny Ainge’s plan by taking Tatum instead of Lonzo Ball. But Tatum knew the Lakers didn’t want him, which “devastated” him at the time.
“At the time, for me, I grew up a Kobe fan. I always wanted to play for the Lakers,” Tatum said on the Club 520 podcast. “For [the Lakers] to have the No. 2 pick, and it wasn’t even a thought that I was going to get drafted [by them], that was kind of devastating. I never worked out for the Lakers. They never came to watch me work out.”
The Sixers taking Fultz No. 1 was more than justified at the time. He was roundly considered to be the best player in the draft, and nobody could’ve predicted he would go through probably the strangest case of the shooting yips we’ve ever seen.
But the Lakers taking Ball? This one, even at the time, could’ve been questioned. It’s easy to see how it happened. Ball was the local kid, and the hype around him, in no small part a product of his dad, was a freight train by the time the draft arrived.
But to not even work Tatum out? This was a damn near reckless case of tunnel vision by the Lakers, who, looking back, clearly made a terrible call taking Ball over Tatum. Ball has become a very solid player, but Tatum is an MVP-level star who has already led the Celtics to a championship.
Of course, even if the Lakers had decided to take Tatum, there’s a pretty good chance he wouldn’t have stayed with them anyway. At that time, LeBron James was determined to get Anthony Davis. The Lakers shipped Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart to New Orleans to make it happen. It’s hard to believe they would’ve held up that deal to hang onto Tatum.
So Tatum could have ended up in New Orleans, and from there, who knows how things play out. You never know with these things. For Tatum, it obviously worked out for the best. He wound up in Boston, where he was afforded the opportunity to play on a good team right away while growing, at his pace, into a franchise player. And that culminated in a championship.
