Over the previous few weeks, Jayson Tatum has notably made the rounds along with his new image guide, Child Dunks-A-Lot. He touted it on Good Morning America, on the Tonight Present with Jimmy Fallon, in bookstores in New York Metropolis, and even in cities throughout Massachusetts.
It’s the most recent accomplishment in a summer season of success that started with an NBA championship, was punctuated by a $314 supermax contract extension, an NBA2K cowl (a childhood dream), and, after all, an Olympic gold medal.
The guide, nevertheless, is perhaps his most private achievement. It includes a child who can dunk and finally turns into a member of an expert basketball workforce — whereas in any other case behaving like a child and requiring nap time. It contains cameos from a slew of NBA gamers together with Grant Williams, Jimmy Butler, Bradley Beal and others — all of whom have been thrilled to be featured.
And, whereas clearly not utterly primarily based on true occasions, the story is impressed by Tatum’s relationship along with his son Deuce, who was born in the course of Tatum’s rookie season and has famously grown up across the workforce.
How did all of it come to be?
The story begins with Sam Apple, a longtime writer and large basketball fan who approached Tatum’s workforce with an idea for an image guide the featured a child hanging out round a basketball workforce. Tatum was all in, excited on the idea, and the 2 started working, often assembly on Zoom as they collaborated on the ultimate product.
“It was type of primarily based on the connection that I’ve with my son,” Tatum mentioned on CBS earlier this month, as a part of the press tour. “And, like many mother and father world wide who learn kids’s books to their children at nighttime, that’s simply one thing that we did that was a part of our routine. To share a bit of our routine and story with the remainder of the world, I used to be tremendous enthusiastic about it.”
Tatum cherished the concept of drawing inspiration from Deuce’s expertise with the Celtics, a dynamic that’s been well-chronicled as Deuce has turn into a fan favourite.
“That’s to not say that Child Dunks-a-Lot is Deuce by any means, however the concept of a child being round an NBA workforce is de facto Jayson’s story in numerous methods,” Apple mentioned.
Apple mentioned that Tatum took the enhancing course of critically, oftentimes sending again particular suggestions relating to particulars within the illustrations or textual content.
“Lots of people can discuss what it’s wish to have Jayson Tatum play lockdown protection on you, and the way robust that’s, however not many individuals can discuss what it’s wish to be edited by Jayson Tatum,” Apple mentioned. “I obtained some robust edits again.”
Jayson Tatum on the range represented in his new image guide, Child Dunks-a-Lot:
“Illustration was tremendous essential when creating this guide. Being natural and exhibiting Black and Brown kids, and that it is doable to be in books.”
(By way of @CBSMornings) pic.twitter.com/GBoTXOCLLM
— Noa Dalzell (@NoaDalzell) September 10, 2024
Deuce obtained concerned within the course of too. serving to Tatum choose illustrator Parker-Nia Gordon from a slew of potential artists.
“Deuce, behind the scenes, was truly taking part in a job in commenting on the illustrations and serving to choose the illustrator,” Apple mentioned.
Working with an expert athlete got here with its personal studying curve, Apple advised CelticsBlog.
“On our very first Zoom name, I used to be chatting with Jayson concerning the guide, and he mentioned some very nice issues, however I might solely see him from the neck up and his facial features didn’t appear all that optimistic,” Apple mentioned. “So, I used to be slightly nervous. After which I used to be made conscious that he was truly sitting in an ice bathtub.”
Placing the guide collectively was a course of that spanned many months and extra calls, however the two additionally obtained to fulfill on a handful of events. Apple lives in Philadelphia, and when the Celtics performed the Philadelphia 76ers final season, they lastly met in particular person. Apple mentioned he grew up a Houston Rockets fan, however that he now roots for the Celtics, too.
“He met my entire household, and the youngsters have been so thrilled about that,” Apple mentioned. “He’s only a very nice, humorous man. I feel he’s obtained a extremely good humorousness.”
A sequel is already within the works, and the reception has been overwhelmingly optimistic. And, fittingly, Tatum has made positive to share the love and the credit score.
“I‘ve been actually touched and honored that in lots of his interviews, the very first thing he says is, ‘I need to get a shoutout to my co-author,’” Apple mentioned. “Lots of athletes would make the co-author kind of invisible. And he might have accomplished that — I’d have understood. However, he’s actually been calling me out and giving me credit score. And it’s very nice to have the ability to share in that. So, you possibly can think about it’s such a thrill for my children to see me up there. So, it’s simply been actually good. I’m so pleased with the way it all got here collectively.”
