By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
LeBron James isn’t the only NBA player making history this week. While Jayson Tatum has a ways to go to catch James in the scoring department, the Boston Celtics star reached an impressive milestone in Friday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets at TD Garden.
Tatum hit his 1,000th career 3-pointer Friday night, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to reach 1,000 threes at 24 years and 344 days old.
Tatum fittingly broke the record of his childhood friend, Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal, who made his 1,000th 3-pointer at 25 years and 223 days old.
Tatum isn’t the Celtics’ best outside shooter percentage-wise, but he earned this record in part through sheer volume: The sixth-year forward has made at least 170 3-pointers in three consecutive seasons and ranks sixth in the NBA this season in threes made (171) while shooting at a 35.3 percent clip entering Friday night.
All of those 3-pointers have led to lots of points: By scoring 12 points Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers, Tatum also broke Isaiah Thomas’ Celtics franchise record set in 2016-17 for most points scored before the All-Star break (1,583).
Thomas went on to average 28.9 points per game that season, the second-highest scoring average in Celtics history behind only Larry Bird (29.9 points per game in 1987-88). Tatum is on pace to surpass both players, however, putting up 30.6 points per game through 55 contests.
Tatum has put impressive numbers from Day 1 since entering the league at age 19, and he’s only gotten better, emerging as a legitimate MVP candidate in Year 6. If he continues on this trajectory, he could do serious damage to both the Celtics’ and the NBA’s record books before all is said and done.