Celtics’ Jayson Tatum wins first Player of the Month award for third season running

Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum has won the Eastern Conference’s October/November Player of the Month award for the third season in a row.

Tatum made history when he was announced as the winner on Tuesday, becoming the first player to accomplish the feat in three consecutive years.

The recently crowned NBA champion has enjoyed an impressive start to the new campaign, averaging 28.7 points a night as well as 8.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists in 21 games.

According to the best online betting sites, Tatum holds the third-best odds to win MVP at +500 – behind only Nikola Jokic (+175) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (+300).

The 26-year-old, widely regarded as a bona fide top-five player in the league, looks to have the weight of the world lifted off his shoulders following championship triumph in June and it’s taken his game to a new level.

The Celtics trail only the Cleveland Cavaliers in the race for the NBA’s best record but sitting just 1.5 games behind, it probably won’t be long before Boston leapfrog their rivals into top spot.

WATCH: The best of Eastern Conference Player of the Month Jayson Tatum in October/November

The Eastern Conference @Kia Player of the Month for October & November is Jayson Tatum! #KiaPOTM pic.twitter.com/QceXBb3RRA

— NBA (@NBA) December 3, 2024

Jayson Tatum wants to be known as the NBA’s top dog and he’s doing a stellar job of it

Tatum’s situation is unlike most other star players in the NBA. When he was drafted by the Celtics in 2017, he joined a team who were already competing for the conference title and that early success skewed some’s perception of him.

Quickly, the narrative grew that if Tatum wasn’t winning a championship, he wasn’t worthy of the elite status that many of his peers hold – all due to the fact he hadn’t won a ring by the time he was 25. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Those were the standards he was held to because of how good he was as soon as he entered the league. In 2018, the Celtics fell in Game 7 of the Eastern Confernce Finals to LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers and on his rookie playoff run, Tatum was able to go toe-to-toe with arguably the greatest player ever.

In 2020, the Celtics lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat and two years later, they fell short again – but this time it was in the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors. At that point in 2022, Tatum was just 24-years-old and had more winning playoff experience than almost every player in the league.

A five-time All-Star with three All-NBA First Team honors, at the age of 26 all Tatum needed was a championship to cement his resume as one of the greats – and he did just that in 2024 when Boston defeated the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the NBA Finals.

The Celtics are the favorites once again and if they can go back-to-back with Tatum leading the way, it might be time to start talking about this man as not only one of the greats – but the best Celtic of all-time, dethroning Larry Bird and Bill Russell.

Following Kyrie Irving’s departure in 2019, Tatum was handed the keys to the franchise and he’s never looked back. Ever since, he’s proved himself as one of the best scorers in the game and his level of play has continued to drastically improve year on year in every category.

His playoff resume says it all. Tatum has knocked the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jimmy Butler, Luka Doncic and Kevin Durant off their perch and he’s coming for even more, still being years away from hitting his prime.

There will be some very uncomfortable (for some) conversations to have when Tatum wins his second championship, and I’m more than happy to kick them off.