{"id":730884,"date":"2026-06-12T00:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T00:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730884\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T00:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T00:40:17","slug":"celtics-jayson-tatum-clarifies-why-hes-not-rooting-against-knicks-in-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730884\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Clarifies Why He\u2019s Not Rooting Against Knicks In NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Clarifies Why He\u2019s Not Rooting Against Knicks In NBA Finals<\/a> originally appeared on NESN<\/a>. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks lead the San Antonio Spurs three games to one in the NBA Finals. Most Boston fans are rooting against New York due to the rivalry, but Celtics<\/a> star Jayson Tatum remains neutral.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

“I’m not rooting for anybody, I’m also not rooting against anybody,” Tatum told Front Office Sports Thursday on who he wants<\/a> to win the finals. “I think it does help that I’ve won a championship already, so it helps me sleep a little better at night.”<\/p>\n

Many Celtics fans probably don\u2019t like hearing that their star player isn\u2019t rooting against the Knicks, but it\u2019s likely difficult for him to do so. Players often have a different perspective on teams than fans do, as many NBA stars have friends on both sides and don\u2019t want to root for just one team.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

If the Celtics hadn\u2019t won the 2024 NBA Finals, Tatum might have a different perspective on this series. Over the last four years, the Eastern Conference has largely been dominated by the Celtics and the Knicks. If New York were in a position to grab a ring before Boston during this era, Tatum would probably be cheering for the Spurs to take down the Knicks. But since Boston claimed victory two years ago, Tatum can breathe a little easier now.<\/p>\n

New York will look to clinch its first NBA championship since 1973 in Game 5 on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

More NBA: There’s Only One Player Celtics Aren’t Willing To Trade For Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Clarifies Why He\u2019s Not Rooting Against Knicks In NBA Finals originally appeared on NESN. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[3333,49,48,5939,3556,459,2087,3430,2901,2696,82],"class_list":["post-730884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-boston","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celtics","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}