It's kind of weird to see an NBA player born in 1998 as the face of a campaign based around '90s nostalgia, but Celtics forward Jayson Tatum is well-versed in the decade he was barely a part of -- particularly one of its most iconic basketball movies.
"I've seen 'White Men Can't Jump' a thousand times -- one of my favorite movies," Tatum told CBS Sports.
The movie, starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, came out six years (1992) before Tatum was born, but Tatum still remembers his favorite part -- when Snipes and Harrelson engage in an epic trash-talk battle on the outdoor Venice Beach courts the first time their characters meet. The movie is quintessentially '90s, and it shows why Tatum signed on with Foot Locker and Nike to help launch the Nike Air "Origins," a sneaker line based on the color palette and design elements of the 1990s that dropped on Thursday.
Tatum helped kick things off by unearthing a "time capsule" that contained the sneakers, along with various other '90s nostalgia like a VHS tape and a water gun strongly resembling the old Super Soakers.
Though VHS tapes were already far along their path to redundancy by the time Tatum was old enough to watch them, he insists that he's familiar with the old product. For research, however, Tatum used the more modern video medium of YouTube to study the fashion, music and basketball style of the '90s. He immediately noticed a difference in the way the game was played, but he doesn't think that's a bad thing.
"With everything, things evolve and change. I think it's good for basketball, just the skill set of guys is different, obviously," Tatum told CBS Sports. "Basketball back then was incredible, you know, because of all the great players. But there's a lot of great players in our game today. I'm sure 20 years from now the game will look a lot different than it does today. It's just how everything works. Over time, everything changes."
Tatum was influenced by those players that came before him, particularly Michael Jordan, whom Tatum calls the "best of all time." He's even borrowed a part of M.J.'s game that helps separate Tatum from the 3-point-happy offenses we see today: the midrange. Tatum proved early that he could also shoot the NBA 3-pointer, leading the league in percentage for a good chunk of his rookie season, but he knows the midrange is his bread and butter.
"I've always been known for my midrange game," Tatum told CBS Sports. "It's something that always just really came natural and easy to me."
Another player who Tatum idolizes, Kobe Bryant, began his career in the '90s, and some of Tatum's moves show that he clearly watched video of The Mamba as well.
"That's the way younger people like myself can stay connected and learn from the generations before us, so that we are knowledgeable of those that came before us," Tatum told CBS Sports.
