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Plenty of people clowned on Jayson Tatum for seemingly copying a number of famous celebrations after he won his first NBA title with the Celtics, but Kevin Garnett doesn’t appear to think he was a victim of plagiarism based on his assessment of the postgame festivities.
Every professional athlete grows up dreaming of winning a championship, and while anyone who manages to achieve that goal has probably spent decades thinking about how they’d react to that life-changing moment countless times, there’s only so much you can do to prepare for the emotional deluge that comes with checking the box in real life.
Jayson Tatum was obviously over the moon when the Boston Celtics secured the 18th title in franchise history by beating the Mavericks in five games, but fans couldn’t help but notice he appeared to draw some serious inspiration from Kanye West, Steph Curry, and Kevin Garnett while celebrating in the immediate wake of the championship.
It was hard not to compare Tatum’s “WE DID IT!” outburst to Kevin Garnett’s iconic cry of “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!” after the Celtics won it all in 2008, but KG didn’t seem to think it was a deliberate ripoff based on what he had to say while discussing the moment with Paul Pierce on the most recent episode of Ticket & The Truth.
Kevin Garnett talks about the moment when he saw Jayson Tatum did the " We did it" moment. pic.twitter.com/3hIFUGBjK5
— Maine☘️Boston Celtics☘️ 2023-2024 NBA CHAMPIONS (@Big_Maine100) June 20, 2024
The legendary big man could obviously relate to what Tatum was experiencing, saying:
“At that moment, it hit him. Right there, I was like ‘Oh s—, he got it.’ He’s on top of the world.
It’s a surreal moment where you can’t really speak. When you’re in it—have you ever tried to explain something when you were in it?
I was watching him like, man, all that energy came back. I watched the floor, the confetti, I just watched it all. I’m so happy for those guys.”
It’s pretty hard to deny Tatum cribbed from Curry and Kanye later in the night, but based on Garnett’s evaluation of the situation, it seems like uncontrollable yelling is simply a side effect of winning a championship.