Jayson Tatum took a lot of heat for looking like a deer in the headlights at times during his first NBA Finals experience. It’s previously been revealed that the Boston Celtics superstar was dealing with shoulder injury in his shooting arm as well as a wrist that was still healing from a non-displaced chip.

Instead of making it known during the Finals themselves to lessen the heat on his poor play, Jayson Tatum chose to keep quiet. Admitting he was hurt may have helped the perception around him, but it would’ve been detrimental to allow the Golden State Warriors to know that he was ailing.

To Tatum, everyone at that point was dealing with their own nicks and bruises, so there was little point in crying about his lingering injuries, despite the fact that it clearly hindered him from playing at his best.

“It affected me, but that’s why I never talked about it,” Jayson Tatum told Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “I didn’t show people I was wearing a brace [off the court] because if I’m out there, if you playing, then you playing. So, if you can’t play, then you can’t play. It was June, so everybody was dealing with something. I wasn’t the only guy out there that was banged up.

“[Celtics center] Rob [Williams] was damn near playing on one leg and I know the Warriors had guys [with] injuries and stuff, so it’s not an excuse. It was just the reality.”

The best remedy to his injuries would have been confetti falling down on his face as the Celtics got crowned as champions. With things not going Boston’s way after getting so close, the motivation for Jayson Tatum to get back has only gotten stronger.