Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics are inseparable from Jayson Tatum’s career. Drafted 3rd overall in 2017, he became the cornerstone of the most storied franchise in basketball history and led Boston to the 2024 NBA championship — the club’s record-setting title. Along the way he has earned multiple All-NBA and All-Star selections in Celtics green.

Source: Wikipedia’s Jayson Tatum entry — “Tatum was selected by the Boston Celtics with the third overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft” after playing “college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils”; Boston closed out the 2024 NBA Finals in five games with Tatum posting 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds in the Game 5 win on 17 June. The article does not credit Tatum with the 2024 Finals MVP, which is consistent with what this site says about that award.

Because Tatum has only ever played for the Celtics, every Tatum card is a Celtics card. That makes this franchise the natural anchor for a Tatum collection — from his 2017-18 rookies through his 2024 championship cards to his ongoing prime.

A franchise Tatum joined already carrying the most banners

The Celtics are one of the NBA’s original franchises, dating to the league’s first 1946-47 season, and no team has hung more championship banners. Bill Russell anchored 11 titles in 13 seasons through the 1950s and 60s — the most decorated run by any player in North American pro sports. Larry Bird’s 1980s teams added three more and fed the league’s defining rivalry with Magic Johnson’s Lakers. The 2008 “Big Three” of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen brought banner 17 home, again against the Lakers. That history is exactly why the 2024 title mattered so much: Boston went into that Finals tied with the Lakers at 17 apiece, and Tatum’s team beating Dallas 4-1 gave the Celtics sole possession of the NBA’s championship record at 18 — the game’s oldest rivalry, settled in Boston’s favor on the floor.

Every one of those eras still shapes the hobby. Vintage Russell and Bird cards, 2000s-era Garnett/Pierce/Allen product, and modern Tatum cardboard trade in completely separate markets and price brackets — but collectors who build around the franchise rather than a single player often cross into all three, using team sets and Celtics-branded inserts to connect them.

Collecting the Celtics era

• The rookie year (2017-18). Boston drafted him and he debuted in green, so his rookie cards are Celtics cards from day one. Start with the Jayson Tatum rookie cards breakdown, or the brand-by-brand rookie card checklist if you want the full map before you buy.
• The 2024 title run. Championship- and Finals-branded cards are the most distinctly Celtics cut of his catalogue — see Jayson Tatum 2024 championship cards. (Worth knowing: Jaylen Brown, not Tatum, took 2024 Finals MVP, which shapes how that year’s cards are chased.)
• Green-and-gold imagery. Insert families lean hard on team colours and Boston iconography — the Donruss insert reference and the NBA Hoops insert reference cover the named sets year by year.
• The whole timeline. Jayson Tatum cards year by year runs season by season from the 2017-18 rookie through the title year and into the current licence era.
• TD Garden and the banners. The Celtics have played at TD Garden since 1995, where all 18 championship banners and more retired numbers than any other NBA franchise hang from the rafters — the backdrop most Celtics-team-themed inserts and parallels lean on.

Before you buy a Celtics-era Tatum

High-demand modern stars attract reprints and counterfeits, so check the card is genuine first — spotting fake Tatum rookie cards and reprints, and spotting fake Tatum autographs for anything signed. Then price it off live listings rather than guesswork with what is a Jayson Tatum card worth.

The Jayson Tatum player hub is the full index for everything above, and the eBay rails across the site pull live listings for Tatum’s Celtics-era rookies, autographs, and graded cards.