Bradley Beal grew up with Jayson Tatum in St. Louis and believes he's "the next face of the league." Beal praises Tatum's rapid development, youth, and strong support system, noting his standout performance on Team USA alongside Kevin Durant.
Chapters
What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. I think it's well documented and well known your relationship with JT, Jayson Tatum. For those of y'all that don't know who JT is, I've had the opportunity over the course of the summer and over the course of the last couple years, but really over this summer, to really get to know him. And it was big for me because you see this guy who is like young and yet he's now been doing it at this level since he, for 5 years now since he came in, 4 or 5 years since he came into the league. And you can get it twisted or like, oh, he's one of us. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And we're at the Olympics and I'm just sitting and talking to him. And then some of the questions he would ask, I'm like, yo, this dude is a baby, man. Like, this dude is a baby. But you don't think that because he's so good and he's on the level that we are on. All-Stars, producing, like, and you just like, oh shit. In some cases ahead of the level, you know, like, And you just like, "Man." You tend to think like, "No, he just one of us." But the reality is he's a baby. And I've gotten an opportunity to know him. I've got an opportunity to build a relationship with him. And it's one that I cherish. I cherish relationships. But the— and I'm so excited the way he's playing because him and Jaylen Brown went through a lot of, especially this last year and a half, a lot of stuff like you and John went through it. Like, "Oh, they can't work together, this, that." You got these people trying to create turmoil against them and they figuring it out and it makes me happy. But just wanna really get your thoughts on JT, the season he's having and where do you see him going in his career? Like what's that next step for him to take?
Man, it's crazy. A lot of people don't know. Well, a lot of people do know that we grew up together. So we both from St. Louis, we both went to the same high school. Moms know each other, like whole nine. And I would always tell Jason when he was younger, you gonna be a million times better than me. A million. Like, and to see it happening as fast as it is, is really crazy.
Mm-hmm.
Like, it's very crazy, right? And to see the success he has, like you said, like I forget, that he's as young as he is.
Absolutely crazy.
'Cause he's been around me forever, right? I've known Jay since he was in diapers. I've known him forever. And to see him now, he got more— I'm barely growing my beard, Draymond. My shit don't even connect. Jay got a full beard. Like, and to see him, to see him growing into this young man, bro, He's the next face of the league. And I told him that, that is your goal.
Mm-hmm.
Like he has a, he has a great support system. He got a lot of people that push him around him and they uplift him. Mom being number one. But I always tell him, Draymond, you are the face of this league, bro. You have that opportunity to be the face of this league. Like don't shy away from it. No endorsement. Don't shy away from no money thrown your way. Whatever the league wanna say they do for you, do it. This is your league, bro. Like you already playing at this elite level. You need to be getting your name into these MVP talks every year. Like because you have that ability. Like that's his projection. That is his projection.
Like— 100%.
That's his rejection.
I agree. I agree 100%. It's funny, which I wish you could have gone with us and we'll get outta here. But even on the team, like obviously, you know, on our team, the USA team, KD was the guy. Like, but you can see like next up is him. And there were games where K looked at him like, "Hey man, come on now." Like, "You gotta take it now." Clockwork. Boom, boom, boom. And I'm just like, yo, this dude got it, man. Boom, boom, boom.
