Tatum opens up about the reason why he wanted to be on the first season of the Netflix show

Celtics

“I thought, 'No, I want to be in the first part.' And I thought, 'I think we're going to win a championship.'”

Jayson Tatum is far from the only NBA superstar featured in Starting 5, the new Netflix-produced documentary that follows some of basketball's top talent on and off the court.

As the series title suggests, the series follows five NBA stars in its first season: Tatum, LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Edwards and Domantas Sabonis. Given that it tracked all five players throughout the 2023-24 season, Tatum figured he would get a lot of attention – considering he helped lead Boston to the championship in June.

But speaking to reporters on Thursday, Tatum admitted that Netflix producers gave him the option to wait until the show's second season if he wanted to become the show's star.

Even though Tatum was considered one of the NBA's brightest young stars, any series in which he shared the spotlight with a legend like James would inevitably take some of the attention away from Boston's top forward.

But Tatum emphasized that he wanted to be there in that first season – due in large part to the high expectations he had for his team heading into the 2023-24 season.

“I remember watching 'Quarterback,'” Tatum said Thursday at the Auerbach Center. “When they came to me with the idea, they said at the time that LeBron was in it, and honestly he was like, 'Yo, you could wait until season two, and of course, maybe you could be the star of season two.' I thought, ‘No, I want to be in the first one.’ And I thought, ‘I think we’re going to win a championship.’ And we did.”

Tatum's hopeful prediction paid off for him, the Celtics and Netflix – as the Celtics defeated the rest of the NBA en route to their coveted 18th championship. Boston faced little resistance as it fought its way through the league, losing just three games in the playoffs.

Although Tatum appears throughout the series, the 26-year-old forward admitted that he wanted to go to the end of the show to relive his championship triumph over the Dallas Mavericks.

“I’m not going to lie, I skipped to Episode 10 last night,” Tatum said. “I just wanted to see what it was like. And I was emotional in a good way, reliving those moments of realizing a lifelong dream and all the things behind the scenes. I was really happy to see that on TV last night, to relive the moment when we won a championship.”

Tatum and the Celtics will have another opportunity to celebrate their success on October 22nd when Boston receives its championship rings and raises banner 18 to the TD Garden Rafters before the season opener against the Knicks.

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Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.

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