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Jayson Tatum Talks March Madness, Recovery, and Getting Back on the Court
BOSTON CELTICS STAR Jayson Tatum says he was “glued to the TV” during March Madness tournaments throughout his childhood. Now, the six-time All-Star and NBA Champion is featured in a March Madness commercial, ‘Baby’s First Dunk,’ for AT&T. Alongside a cameo from his mom, Brandy Cole-Barnes, Tatum highlights the importance of connection—a through line for his own basketball career.
His college, Duke, is synonymous with March Madness. Despite the Blue Devils’ historic success, attending Duke didn’t cross his mind when he was young. But by high school, his talent was evident—so the Blue Devils were on his radar. “As I got older, I started to gain more knowledge in what I wanted to do and accomplish,” Tatum says. “Going to Duke was very appealing because of their track record and being on the biggest stage, all the primetime games.”
The level of competition was also a strong pull. His inaugural UNC vs. Duke rivalry game inside Cameron Indoor Stadium is a core memory—Duke won that one, he added. In his only ACC Tournament in 2017, the Blue Devils entered as a five-seed. They won the entire tournament, taking four games in four days, including a victory over UNC, becoming the first-ever team to win four games as a five-seed to claim the title. “That was a special week,” Tatum says.
Duke didn’t fare quite as well in March Madness that year, losing in the second round. Three months later, Tatum was drafted by Boston as the third overall pick in 2017.
“It wasn’t an easy decision. I wasn’t ready to leave,” Tatum says of departing Duke after one year. “But my lifelong dream was to go to the NBA.” He returns to Durham most summers and is now the Chief Basketball Officer for the program. As the CBO, Tatum says coaches and players can bounce ideas off him to improve the program. He watches as many Duke games as possible. And, of course, he’s rooting for them to win it all this March. The Blue Devils entered the 2026 tournament as a 1-seed, then survived a close first-round matchup against 16-seed Siena, 71-65. Duke won its second-round game versus TCU more handily 81-58, with momentum ahead of its Sweet 16 matchup with 5-seed St. John’s on March 27 .
“What we love about March Madness is win or go home,” Tatum says. Often, the matchups are teams that don’t play each other in the regular season. The locations are different; the cities are new. “All of those factors really heighten the experience for the fans, the teams, and bring out the best in the athletes,” Tatum says. “We’ve seen it—on any given day, anybody can win, and that’s what we love about it.”
Last year, the Celtics were a strong contender to repeat as NBA champions. But on May 12, 2025, in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals against New York, Tatum ruptured his Achilles tendon. Boston subsequently lost to the Knicks in six games.
The recovery wasn’t easy. Tatum is very close to his mother, Brandy, so he lived with her for the first ten weeks post-injury because he couldn’t walk up and down steps. “It was like being in high school again,” Tatum says.
Despite his limitations, those early weeks taught him about himself. “I realized that I was stronger than I thought I was,” Tatum says. “Initially, I had a lot of doubt. Candidly, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to go through rehab. But I just tried to put my best foot forward every day and show up.”
The process, he says, also taught him not to be afraid to test himself. “You’d be surprised at what your body can respond well to and handle,” he says. Recovery modalities continue to evolve, and he embraced that part of the process. He watched movies, surrounded himself with family and friends, and tried different ways to distract his mind from what he was physically going through.
He also leaned on what nine years of NBA experience had taught him. In those early NBA years, league veterans showed him how to train and play for career longevity. “Your body is your temple,” Tatum says. How he eats, how he recovers, how he prepares for a game, how he practices—it all adds up over the course if an eight-or-nine-month season. And his choices are thoughtful and intentional. “They all matter,” he says.
Ten months later, on March 6, 2026, Tatum returned to the court. While he’s grateful to be playing again, he’s still learning how to find the balance and give himself grace. “It’s something I’m literally, actively trying to figure out,” Tatum says. “It’s not easy. Athletes at this level, you work so hard, you want it so badly. It can be frustrating at times.”
That’s where patience factors in, too. A laid-back, quiet person, Tatum says that becoming a father at age 20 helped him learn a new kind of patience (he also has a 21-month-old son, Dylan, who appears with him in the commercial). He reminds himself not to rush a moment, good or bad. Basketball has been the glue connecting him to all those experiences.
“Basketball has taken me all over the world,” Tatum says. “It’s opened doors for me, the people and the relationships I’ve been able to build have in some way, shape or form stemmed from basketball. I couldn’t be more grateful for all the things basketball has provided for me, my family and my kids.”
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