Boston Celtics champion and Olympic gold medalist Jayson Tatum has had a tattoo inked on his body to commemorate one of his many accomplishments over the past two seasons. After scoring 55 points in the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, setting a new record for most points ever scored in the star-studded NBA game, Tatum took home the game’s Most Valuable Player Award, named after the late Kobe Bryant.

Tatum idolized the five-time champion of the Los Angeles Lakers. On his personal Snapchat, Tatum posted a picture of the All-Star MVP trophy tattooed on his right thigh.

Tatum is having an eventful summer. After winning his first championship with the Celtics and defeating Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the 2024 NBA Finals, Tatum won his second Olympic gold medal with the US team and is now preparing for his eighth NBA season.

Jayson Tatum’s tributes to Kobe Bryant

While being named MVP of the 2023 NBA All-Star Game is an honor in itself, it was even more special for Jayson Tatum to win the trophy named after your all-time favorite player, Kobe Bryant. After his rookie season, Tatum went through an offseason workout with Bryant, which he himself said he was as excited about as “a kid in a candy store.”

In an episode of “All The Smoke,” hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, he talked about what that experience was like.

“A lot of attention to detail,” Tatum said. “There wasn’t really anything I couldn’t do. It was a series of moves that he had seen me do and that he did. It was all the little things that you had to think about. That’s what I really took away from it, the little things that he thought about that I never really heard from other people how they approach the game.”

The five-time Celtics All-Star cites Kobe as a major reason why he plays football and describes in a personal Instagram post how much Bryant’s death affected him.

“Heartbroken. My hero. My idol,” Tatum wrote in the caption under a photo of a young Tatum standing next to Bryant. “The reason I started playing this game, the reason I fell in love with this game. I grew up wanting to be just like you and you became my mentor. I am eternally grateful for everything you have done for me.”

Then, before Game 7 of the Celtics’ Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat, Tatum sent a text to Kobe’s phone that read, “Today I got you,” and finished the game with 26 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, leading Boston to the 2022 NBA Finals.