Hochman: The shot that launched Jayson Tatum. At 14, current Celtics star shocked De Smet (2024)

The play that launched Jayson Tatum was originally used against the Celtics.

On Feb. 12, 2012, Chaminade assistant coach Frank Bennett — a self-proclaimed “hoops junkie” — watched the Chicago Bulls at Boston on ESPN. Third quarter. Bulls inbounded under their own basket.

With 3.3 seconds left.

Bennett was smitten by the play call, “So I took my phone out and just recorded it. And I put it in our database.”

One basketball season later, Chaminade trailed De Smet by two points. Chaminade would inbound the ball under its own basket.

Sure enough, with 3.3 seconds left.

Bennett mentioned to head coach Kelvin Lee: “I’ve got something if you need it.”

By age 14, Jayson Tatum was one of the better high school freshmen in the country, but he hadn’t had his breakout moment yet. His highlight. The play that would be, as Bennett put it Wednesday, “his introduction to who we know now as Jayson Tatum.”

Who we know now as Jayson Tatum is, arguably, the best American player currently in the NBA. The St. Louis native is the top player on Celtics, who have advanced to the 2024 NBA Finals (which begin June 6). A perennial All-Star with his own Jordan brand Nike shoe, Tatum was recently named to the All-NBA first team.

Entering the night of Jan. 8, 2013, Tatum was a freshman starter for Chaminade, which had a 6-6 record. Meanwhile, De Smet (9-3) was the No. 6 team in the STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings. In fact, De Smet had knocked off the No. 1 team, Belleville East, the previous weekend.

“That was back when Jayson and I were just skinny fellas,” said Will Gladson, also a Chaminade freshman player at the time. “He started every game, but Coach Lee was kind of trying to figure out where he would fit in. We had Andy Kleinlein, who was a great shooter. Jack Hummel down low. ... Jayson was a little bit taller than (the other) guys, so he started at (power forward). And then we went through a pretty rocky start to our freshman year. But it became pretty clear that Jayson was going to have to have the ball in his hands.”

This 2013 game was played at Chaminade’s gym, which has a pitched ceiling made of wood, resembling an old barn. Sure enough, this game against De Smet, Bennett recalled, “was a barn-burner ... and the gym was packed.”

The home team trailed by eight at halftime.

And then, in the fourth quarter, the home team took a seven-point lead but lost it.

In the final minute, De Smet jumped to a 63-62 lead, thanks to a jumper from Jimmy Barton.

But with 3.3 seconds left, Chaminade got a rebound and called timeout.

Bennett would become the Chaminade head coach the next season. And come the spring of 2016, Bennett, Tatum, Gladson (and future NBA player Tyler Cook) won the Missouri state championship. But on this night against De Smet, Bennett was an assistant with “a play in my back pocket. ... Coach allowed me to kind of be baptized by fire.”

In the Bulls-Celtics game, with the ball under Chicago’s basket, the Bulls utilized screens to clear out the backcourt. All-Star Joakim Noah ran into the backcourt and caught the pass, while the backcourt screeners streaked down the left and right sideline. Noah had the option to dribble or pass ahead. He passed — but John Lucas III missed a 3.

In the De Smet-Chaminade game, with the ball under Chaminade’s basket, the 6-foot-6 Tatum ran into the backcourt and caught the ball.

He turned downcourt. Brandon Shackleford picked him up defensively. Tatum dribbled to his right but, at the half-court line, cut left. But — before Shackleford could position his body that direction, Tatum crossed him over again. It was perfectly timed. Tatum identified a spot behind the 3-point arc and shot a St. Louis arch.

Again, Chaminade was up by two.

“So for him to take the shot, (you become) vulnerable,” Bennett said. “Because if you miss, everybody’s going to be talking bad about you. He risked it.

“And he knocked it down.”

Game.

Chaminade 65, De Smet 63.

“I remember the ball going in and then us, collectively, losing our minds,” Gladson said. “That dagger 3 was pretty insane. ... I think there’s a really great photo — somewhere it’s still on social media — of Jayson kind of mid-one-legged jump with a fist-bump ... and the entire bench is kind of behind him. So he’s like running toward the camera and everyone else is behind him, which I always thought was very apropos of how things went in our entire career there.”

On the night, the 14-year-old Tatum finished with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. It was his best game yet.

Soon after, Tatum and Chaminade played Christian Brothers College High. Tatum had a triple-double with North Carolina coach Roy Williams in attendance. The bluebloods had come calling.

“With Jayson,” Gladson said, “it was becoming pretty clear that he was going to be, you know, the man.”

The Chaminade Red Devil would ultimately become a Duke Blue Devil. Tatum played there for a season — and in 2017 was the third pick in the NBA draft. He made the Eastern Conference finals as a rookie. He made the NBA Finals in his fifth season but lost to Golden State. He’s back there now in his seventh.

As Nate Latsch wrote in this newspaper from the Jan. 8, 2013, game: “There are still many memories to come for basketball prodigy Jayson Tatum, Chaminade’s 14-year-old freshman point guard. But this night will go down as one that he will never forget.”