Jayson Tatum Ruined All the Fun But the Fultz Debut Was Awesome

Through three quarters of the 76ers summer league debut, everything was setting up perfectly to write an article bashing Danny Ainge and Celtics fans alike as Fultz shined in a Sixers win over the team that passed up the chance to draft him. Then the 4th quarter happened. The Sixers absolutely choked, couldn’t score and Jayson Tatum hit the game winner en route to 21 points, making cutaways to Ainge in the stands slightly less funny.

Even so, Fultz’ first experience in a Sixers jersey was far from a failure as he chipped in 17 points to go along with three remarkable blocks (astounding considering he is a “lazy defender”). He lived up to his scouting report hype by displaying his crafty array of moves that allow him to attack the rim as well as his ability to shoot of the dribble. This spin move and finish at the rim is pretty much the basketball version of the Mona Lisa.

It had to be unsettling as a Sixers fan to see the third pick in June’s draft outperform the first overall pick that the Celtics had neglected. We just have to accept the fact that Boston sports fans get everything their hearts desire even when it comes to meaningless summer league games at a mostly empty University of Utah arena. Let’s just take solace in the fact that Fultz had a promising debut that would leave any basketball purist craving more and the Celtics are most likely going to miss out on Gordon Hayward less than a week after missing out on Jimmy Butler and Paul George.

One last thing, I’ve been playing organized basketball since I was four years old and I have absolutely no clue what this means:

 

By Aidan Powers | July 4, 2017