“I don’t want that for me and him” – Jayson Tatum opens up on the relationship with his son

Unlike his father, JT isn’t going to force his son to get into basketball.

BOSTON CELTICS

Jayson Tatum was raised with tough love. His father, Justin, was a basketball coach who wanted Jayson to follow in his footsteps, and he achieved that by approaching the latter like a student instead of a son.

While Jayson acknowledges that his upbringing is what helped him become the player he is today, that doesn’t mean he wants to treat his son Deuce with tough love. Tatum opened up about why he has a significantly different parenting style with his boy.

“I’m like, do I take that route?” Tatum said on the “Point Forward” podcast. “I don’t want that for me and him, what I have with my dad, even if it worked. I am who I am because in large part of how he pushed me so hard, but it had a strain in our relationship.”

Jayson won’t force Deuce to play basketball
Unlike his father, the Boston Celtics superstar said he won’t pressure his son to be a professional basketball player. If Tatum feels that his six-year-old boy wants to make it to the NBA eventually, he will help him do so with love and care. But if Deuce doesn’t express interest, JT admitted that it won’t bother him at all.

“First of all, I got to know if he loves it. He’s already around it 24/7; if he just likes it, then imma just be the dad in the back, you know, good job, good game, let’s go get some ice cream. But, like, if he really loves it and wants to try to pursue this, then it’s something I got to think about,” Tatum added.

Why Jayson was raised the way he was

Tatum also said that the reason why his dad raised him the way he did was because Justin didn’t have a father figure growing up. It’s also the fact that JT’s parents had him when they were 19 years old, so they were learning how to parent a child while at the same time navigating their lives at a young age.

“My dad was the person that put the ball in my hand. He played overseas, he taught me the game, was my coach, and trained me till I got to eighth grade. It was a Jesus Shuttlesworth type of relationship. We’ve definitely gotten better and closer as I got older, but it did kind of put a strain in our relationship,” Tatum said.

Jayson has learned through his upbringing that a child can be raised in different ways, and for him, what matters is that Deuce never feels the way Tatum did growing up.