Jayson Tatum's teammates aren't worried about return hiccups - they're ready to win

BOSTON — As the outside world was caught in a Jayson Tatum-centered frenzy, Derrick White, Hugo Gonzalez, and Amari Williamsescaped to the YMCA in East Boston for an hour. Their quest directive?

Smoothies.

The Boston Celtics, Sun Life, and the YMCA sponsored the “Fit to Win” nutrition event. Five teams of elementary and middle school kids competed in a smoothie- and cereal-bar-making contest, with White, Gonzalez, and Williams each heading up their own squad.

Derrick White, Hugo Gonzalez, and Amari Williams are in East Boston, where the Celtics, Sun Life, and the YMCA are hosting a “Fit to Win” nutrition event. They’ll be competing in a smoothie and cereal bar-making contest. pic.twitter.com/8PpYIh6whV— Jack Simone (@JackSimoneNBA) March 5, 2026

White, a past winner of the event, was extremely confident heading into the night. But so was Gonzalez.

“Hugo has no chance,” White said before the competition. “When I was told it was Hugo, I was like, 'Oh, we got an easy one this year.' I thought they'd maybe give me a little bit of a challenge, but we'll see what the Spanish smoothies are like out there. That would probably be, to see what different cultures are doing. But as long as the judges don't mess with me, because once here, I got the judges messing with me, I'll get a win.”

White spent most of the contest roaming the floor, sneaking looks at his opponents’ work, and talking trash. Gonzalez even called him out for standing a bit too close to the judges’ table when the final scores were being tallied.

Though, according to White, he’s been snubbed in the past on account of being ‘too good’.

“The judges were like, ‘Oh, we can’t let you win every time,’” White said, recalling a past defeat. “As long as I don’t have that, I’ll be fine.”

After the first round, White’s team was tied for the lead. “I do this,” he yelled. But that success didn’t last long.

Derrick White, who is tied for the lead after the first round of smoothie-making: “I do this!” https://t.co/WEYKUQVDLx pic.twitter.com/2pnnST5IYp— Jack Simone (@JackSimoneNBA) March 5, 2026

In the end, none of the three Celtics-led teams were able to bring home the win. It was another team, all of whom walked away with signed basketballs.

But despite the blueberries, bananas, and pineapples taking center stage for a fleeting moment in time, the Tatum talk still took over.

For the first time all season, Tatum was upgraded to questionable for Friday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks. All signs point toward him playing, including an update from Shams Charania of ESPN.

The Celtics superstar has worked for months to get to this point, and as his return inched closer and closer, his excitement grew rapidly.

“The first time he was able to get up and down and play, four-on-four, five-on-five, you could kind of see the excitement go up, because that's obviously what he loves to do,” White said. “And being away from basketball was really difficult for him. And so, I think the more basketball-related stuff he was able to do, and getting up and down, and competing, and just having fun with the game, you can see the excitement level coming back up, the possibility of him returning, and I think it's just been going [up] increasingly as he's been ramping up his his rehab.”

When Tatum got hurt, it was more than just a catastrophic blow to the Celtics’ on-court goals: It was a devastating personal experience.

Take basketball out of it: This was crushing. Tatum saw his entire life change in an instant. From being one of the best athletes in the world to needing help to stand up. The mental journey he went on to get back to the point of walking again was an unfathomable challenge, let alone playing NBA basketball.

Now, the basketball has to be taken into account. It’s time to play again.

But the Celtics aren’t just adding a random player to the mix. Tatum has been with them every step of the way.

“He's been really present, really a vocal leader with his presence,” said Gonzalez. “He has been with us [on] a lot of trips and [in] a lot of meetings, and he's been right there.”

And it’s been that way from the jump.

“Early on, when he was on all the road trips, [and] not just the good cities, you kind of realized that he was going to be around,” White said. "And I think that was, like, big for a lot of people, just having him around. Someone they can lean on in games, on the plane, or whatever it might be, and so, just his presence has definitely helped us win some games. Joe [Mazzulla]'s talked about, everybody kind of leads their different way, and I think him being around has definitely helped us a lot this year.”

For Tatum, that experience has been important. It’s allowed him to stay up to date with everything Boston wants to do on the court, which should make his transition back into the lineup that much easier. But nothing is ever that simple.

And the Celtics are ready for whatever comes their way.

“I have no idea what it's gonna look like,” White said of Tatum’s return to the court. “He hasn't played in a really long time, and we all hope it's the best thing in the world, but there's gonna be ups, there's gonna be downs, and I think we're all willing to just work through that. And like I said, like the main thing is just to win games, and just do what it takes to win, and JT is a guy that can do a lot of things on the court, and so it'll be great having that.”

But Boston is supremely confident in one fact: He will help them win.

“I mean, he's Jayson Tatum,” Gonzalez said. “He's going to be positive for us in any way. He's one of the best players in the world, and anything that he is doing for us is going to be positive. Yeah, that's basically it. He's one of the best players in the world right now, and he will contribute to winning and give us a giving us another floor competitively.”

With Tatum sidelined, the Celtics haven’t missed a beat. An MVP-caliber season from Jaylen Brown, combined with incredible internal growth, has propelled them to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.

In what many labeled as a gap year for the Celtics, they have the Larry O’Brien trophy firmly in their sights. Tatum’s return puts that possibility within reach even more.

He’ll be a game-changer. But the Celtics were always chasing a title, with or without Tatum.

Because that’s the Boston standard.

“That was our goal at the beginning of the year, anyway,” White said. “Obviously, adding a guy like JT definitely helps us a lot, and it's not gonna be easy, It's gonna be a challenge, but we play for the Boston Celtics, so that's always the goal, and always the standard. And so, we came in with that mindset, and it's going to be a lot of work to get to that point, and we got a lot of room to improve, and that's the exciting part, but we got to figure it out quickly.”