Jayson Tatum felt like Lakers ‘didn’t want anything to do with’ him in the 2017 NBA Draft

Even despite being a childhood fan of the franchise, Jayson Tatum was never really considered by the Lakers during the 2017 NBA Draft.

Jayson Tatum has never made his fandom of the Lakers a secret. Growing up a fan of the Lakers and Kobe Bryant, Tatum was this close to living out his dream in 2017 heading into the NBA Draft. The Lakers had landed the No. 2 pick and Tatum was one of the top prospects in the draft.

Obviously, things did not have a fairytale ending for Tatum. In fact, from a fandom point of view, it’d be harder to find a worse ending for a Lakers fan than to be passed up by the purple and gold only to be drafted by the Celtics.

Things worked out just fine for the Tatum — and the Lakers considering they’ve won a title since — as he’s in the NBA Finals and continuing his upward trajectory to one of the top stars in the league. But he recently revisited that 2017 draft in a piece by Ramona Shelburne and Elizabeth Merrill of ESPN and talked about being passed over by the Lakers.

“The Lakers were my favorite team, and Kobe was my favorite player,” says Tatum, who wore a purple No. 24 wristband to honor Bryant in Boston’s win against the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. “So it was crazy that the Lakers had the second pick and I was so close to a dream come true. But it was just like they didn’t want anything to do with me at the time.”

As the piece dives into, as much of a Hollywood tale it would have been a bit of revisionist history to suggest Tatum was a realistic option for the Lakers in 2017. At the time, that draft was seen as a two-player draft at the top with Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball the top two prospects.

In fact, the Lakers never worked out Tatum, though they attempted to get a workout with him late in the predraft process. But that was only a Plan B option in case the Lakers traded back in the draft as they never considered him with that No. 2 pick.

Even after entering the league, though, Tatum hasn’t exactly changed his mindset about the Lakers. He appeared in a commercial before this season celebrating the NBA’s 75th anniversary in a Kobe Bryant jersey. He’s sported an armband with the No. 24 on it in honor of Kobe during these playoffs.

Perhaps there is an eventual storybook ending down the road where Tatum becomes a Laker. There would be no way to better endear himself to Lakers fans, if he even needed to at this point, than to jump ship from Boston to Los Angeles. But it’d be pretty safe to say that after everything he’s done in the league since entering it five years ago, the Lakers probably want something to do with him now.

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