After 298 Days, Jayson Tatum’s Return Is Official

BOSTON — Jayson Tatum will make his long-anticipated return when the Celtics face the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night, the team announced on Friday afternoon via the official injury report. Tatum was listed as questionable on Thursday for the first time since rupturing his Achilles tendon last May, after 298 days on the sidelines.

Many NBA athletes have taken far longer to rehab this type of injury. Kevin Durant did not play in a game for 18 months. Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, who tore his Achilles tendon a month before Tatum did, was almost immediately ruled out for this season, as was Indiana Pacers Tyrese Haliburton, who suffered the injury a month after Tatum. And, New Orleans Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray missed 13 months with the injury before returning to the court last month.

But, in many ways, Tatum is in a pretty unprecedented situation. Last Spring, CelticsBlog spoke with Dr. Lou Soslowsky, the founding director of the Penn Achilles Tendinopathy Center of Research Translation, an NIH-funded center dedicated to researching Achilles tendon injuries and developing new treatments.

Soslowsky said the part that stood out most about Tatum’s potential recovery timeline was the fact that he was able to have his surgery just hours after he suffered his injury, something few NBA athletes have been able to do.

“That is really atypical — even for a professional athlete or a high-profile individual — that is atypical,” Soslowsky said. “So that is really wonderful.”

For context, Lillard ruptured his Achilles on April 27 and underwent surgery on May 2nd. DeMarcus Cousins tore his on a Saturday night and had the surgery on Wednesday. Wesley Mathews tore his Achilles tendon on a Thursday and had the surgery six days later. Rudy Gay also had to wait five days. Even Kevin Durant, who often serves as the poster child for what a successful recovery can look like, tore his Achilles on a Monday night and had the surgery performed on Wednesday.

That, coupled with Tatum’s youth (he was 27 at the time of the injury), made Soslowky optimistic about his recovery timeline despite the severe nature of the injury.

Though these were all high-profile NBA players, it always takes time to put everything together to make the surgery possible, Soslowsky explained. Tatum was already in New York City, where Dr. Martin O’Malley operated on him the morning after the injury.

“The fact that he did choose a surgeon — and there was availability to operate on him so quickly — gives him an excellent shot at an earlier-than-average, high-level athlete return.”

Now, less than 10 months after the initial injury was suffered, Tatum is poised to make his return.

Sam Hauser weighs in on Jayson Tatum’s impending return at shootaround

Speaking to reporters at the Celtics’ shootaround on Friday morning, Sam Hauser made clear the team welcomes Tatum’s return with less than a quarter of the season left to spare.

“He does so many things on the basketball court that are very hard, but he makes it look really easy, and the best part about it is he’s just pretty humble about who he is, his approach every day he wants to work in, gets his treatment,” Hauser said. “He’s a good person. He’s a good dad. So I think that speaks volumes more than the player.”

Hauser noted that Tatum and the Celtics don’t have much time to re-acclimate, but that figuring out how to maximize Tatum is a good problem to have. The Celtics have not disclosed whether Tatum will start or be on a minutes restriction, but one would assume he won’t be back to his usual load right away.

“We only have 19 games left, so it’s going to have to be a quick process whenever that happens,” Hauser said. “As much as you want a grace period for that, we don’t really have that luxury, so we’re all just going to have to figure it out on the fly. That’s a good thing for us to have to problem-solve whenever that comes up and figure things out on our own.”