Jayson Tatum and Your Injured Employee Need to Step Off the Court

I am not an NBA coach. I do love basketball and played at the lowest level in high school. When I was injured prior to my senior year, the JV coach asked me to be his assistant (not the water boy). But that doesn’t make me a basketball expert, no high-level insight here. Just my observation.

In business, especially in the U.S., we love to talk about sports and use sports analogies, especially in Boston. I do all the time. So many sports analogies can be appropriate, useful, and easy to understand. In fact, they usually come with great media - still pictures, video, and audio - to really drive home the point and create excitement in a meeting. There are two problems (at least) with sports analogies in business.

First, they don’t always translate well for people not into sports or whose culture, especially outside the U.S., is not as oriented to the sports we favor. Despite that, a common theme is the idea of how Managers can act like Coaches to motivate our teams. Praising good performance, pointing out where improvements are needed, making sure individuals are working together as a team and celebrating the wins.

Celebrating the wins can be difficult in business. I have worked with Managers who are afraid if they praise or acknowledge someone’s great work too much, the employee will use that acknowledgement to ask for a raise or a promotion. Or perhaps make it more difficult later to discipline them or terminate them if things go south. I find that small-minded. I’d rather risk the consequences of lifting someone up than worry about the consequences of figuring out how to deal with them if their performance becomes substandard. If something goes wrong, you look at the replay together, discuss the issue and rectify it for the future. But just like in sports, at some point that person just may not be a good fit for your team, and you must part ways. There may also come a time when that person who received a boost of confidence from your praise wants to test the market and see what another company will offer them. You won’t be able to keep everyone. 

The issue I’d like to focus on here is when someone’s short-term underperformance may be hurting the larger team. I saw that in the Game 7 playoff, the Boston Celtics vs. the Miami Heat.

I loved the Boston Celtics 2022 – 2023 season. They led the league in wins for a good part of the year. I said to my basketball-loving friends, Jayson Tatum has put the team on his shoulders. They started the year with the unexpected departure of their Head Coach and, it seems to me, Tatum decided he wasn’t going to let that interfere with the team getting back to the finals and winning it.

Jayson Tatum played like a leader and an All-star. He received those accolades all year long. Boston had great players around him, including many unsung and several award winners by the end of the season: Marcus Smart, “NBA Hustle Award”; Malcolm Brogdon, “Sixth Man of the Year”; Coach Joe Mazzulla, second runner-up for NBA Coach of the Year; Jaylen Brown, “2023 All-star”.

As Managers and leaders, we emphasize teamwork. Throughout the playoffs, interviews with Celtics players and the Head Coach included many references to the team game: picking each other up and responding as a team when things went wrong. Gratefulness abounded, like when Tatum had an off-night shooting in the playoffs and another player said they just kept supporting him. The Coach said, “keep shooting”. What they didn’t say was, “You’re terrible, what’s the matter with you, you’re hurting the team”.

Teammates, the Coach, and the player also let the fans know—when Tatum wasn’t scoring – he contributed in other ways: defense, assists, steals, picks, blocked shots, and rebounds. All important contributions to a team effort.

But in Game 7, the Boston Celtics lost badly to the Miami Heat. Why didn’t all that teamwork and team sentiment pay off?

In businesses today, there is a lot of discussion about work-life balance, about personal priorities and ensuring teams feel they are connected to the big picture goals of the company. All valid. Some of the more difficult situations I have encountered involve how an individual’s situation impacts their colleagues, i.e., their team.  When Management wants to acknowledge and help an individual who may be struggling, the question often becomes, should the Manager encourage the team member to “work through it” or does the individual need some space and perhaps some time off. Both of which can affect the rest of the team’s attitude, productivity, and perception of their manager and/or company.

So, what should the Celtics coach, Joe Mazzulla, have done when Jayson Tatum twisted his ankle on the first play of Game 7? Again, I have no special knowledge here, just my observations. I would guess, Tatum wanted to stay in the game no matter what, i.e., “tough it out”. It’s Game 7! I know I would. He didn’t leave the court right away. He didn’t seek treatment and the bench didn’t call for a substitution to speak with him, offer treatment or require treatment. You know the training staff and coaches had plenty of opportunity to watch that injury on replay at courtside or up in a booth. Think of that as watching an employee vomiting violently in the middle of your workspace. Tough it out.

Coach Mazzulla should have taken Tatum out immediately. His star player was injured. Athletes often talk about the difference between playing hurt and playing injured. Playing injured is bad. It’s bad for multiple reasons, including because the player’s career and future are at stake. No one should play injured even if it makes a great highlight reel, saves the game, or puts your name in a record book somewhere. Sorry. Again, that’s different than playing hurt.

What do I think should have happened? Tatum should have been taken out to assess his injury and, potentially, receive treatment. With an ankle sprain, we are told it’s better to leave the shoe on because once you take it off the swelling will increase. Hey, that sounds like the body is trying to protect the injury. But in the NBA, I am quite sure they are equipped to treat that injury if there’s any chance of getting that player back on the court. Something I’m guessing they did at half-time. He should have been off the court ASAP and, more importantly, he should have been off the court most of the game.

One of the comments we hear about superstar athletes is that their talent is so far superior to others, it’s better to have them play than not. “A 90% Shaquille O’Neill is better than no Shaq”; “A 75% Michael Jordan is still the best player on the court.” At what percentage does a player, and in this case, Jayson Tatum become more of a liability? My answer: whatever percentage Tatum was in Game 7. He was quoted after the game as saying, “It was just frustrating that I was…a shell of myself”. A shell. What is that, 5%? So, was it worth keeping Tatum on the floor for 42 minutes of a 48-minute game? No, it was not.

It wasn’t worth it because his presence impacted the rest of the team—badly. Someone I know texted me saying other teams have players that step up when the star isn’t performing. It even happened in this series when Miami’s unrecruited players (which we heard the commentators refer to ad nauseum) stepped up when Jimmy Butler wasn’t shooting well. But this was different. Yes, the Celtics needed Tatum’s scoring. Yes, others needed to make more shots. But with Tatum on the floor, there is an expectation from his teammates that he is going to contribute. Their psyche and experience tell them that. But Tatum was taking a spot from people on that bench who may have been able to do all the other things Tatum usually can do when his shooting is off. As referenced earlier: defense, assists, steals, picks, blocked shots and rebounds. Tatum did some of that, especially rebounding, but the biggest hole he left was his defense. He could not move the way he, and his teammates, needed him to. He needed to be on the bench more than on the floor. He and his Coach needed to trust other players, especially situationally. As often cited by media analysts, the 2023 Celtics had one of the most talented teams with the deepest bench.

I relate this Game 7 example to struggling employee team members. They may be struggling for a variety of reasons: physical, mental, life’s circumstances. As Managers, it’s important, and difficult, to understand when a team member needs encouragement to push through because they are only “hurt” versus when to ask them to stay home—stay on the bench—until their injury is healed. We may be concerned that others aren’t ready to step up, our bench isn’t deep enough, or by removing that teammate from the work we will fail. All are possible. But it’s also possible you’ll be surprised that you do find addition by subtraction. Not just a cliché.

In fact, I had that recent experience. I lost a key Manager and while hiring for their replacement, the Manager’s staff immediately filled the void. They sent me emails about tasks they took on even though they weren’t specifically asked to do them but knew they had to get done. It turned out, they had the knowledge or skills to do it. Sometimes we need to give people the opportunity to shine. We may know who the star players have been, but it is awesome to see new stars rise.

I think the Celtics would have been better off if Jayson Tatum played less, not more. I think companies would be better off if they recognize someone is struggling to allow them space and time to recuperate. I think the “injured” employee will appreciate it, I think other staff will rise to the occasion and I think Managers and businesses would be better off for it. It’s not a sign of weakness to provide that space, it’s a sign of strength for the company that they have hired, trained, and provided opportunities for other people besides the star.

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