Mike D’Antoni had to stop himself from tampering with Jayson Tatum

How much does Mike D’Antoni like Jayson Tatum? So much that he had to make sure he wasn’t tampering before he went on to praise the Boston Celtics rookie.

D’Antoni was asked about Tatum prior to Thursday’s game between the teams and was extremely complimentary.

“I think he’s really good, first of all,” D’Antoni said after a very long pause, according to MassLive.com. “I’m trying to think what I can say without it being tampering. He’s really good and for a rookie, he plays like he’s been in the league for 10 years. He’s going to be a solid if not All-Star level type player for a long, long time. There’s actually nothing he can’t do.”

Tatum, 19, has already proven himself to be one of the gems of the 2017 NBA Draft. He’s averaging 14.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. But where he’s truly impressing is his shooting percentages. Tatum’s made 51.4 percent of his field goals and has been shooting nearly 50 percent on threes all season, which is simply incredible. It would be hard not to praise him.

At least D’Antoni stopped himself from pulling a Magic Johnson.