Celtics success motivated Tatum

Heading into their Playoff series, Illawarra Hawks coach Justin Tatum is taking motivation from watching his son, Jayson, win the NBA championship with the Boston Celtics.  

Jayson played a starring role in Boston’s 2024 NBA success, and his father is now hoping to lead Illawarra to the same level of championship glory.

"I knew how close we were the year before, and I knew we would have pretty much the same team. It was on top of my head that we could enjoy the same feeling as the Boston players,” Tatum said via the Illawarra Mercury.

"So, learning a lot of things from Boston's run, I was able to implement a lot of those things in our team."

The Hawks were the best team during the regular season, as they finished on top of the ladder for the first time in club history and Tatum won the Lindsay Gaze Trophy for Coach of the Year. 

Illawarra will face the winner of Sunday’s Play-In Game between South East Melbourne and Adelaide in the best-of-three Playoff series. 

Tip-off between the Phoenix and 36ers on Sunday is 2:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN and Channel 10.

Click here to read the full story via the Illawarra Mercury