NBA star Jayson Tatum stopped by CBS Mornings to discuss his new children’s book.
Tatum, the Boston Celtics small forward and five-time NBA All-Star, published his first book, Baby Dunks-a-Lot, co-written with Sam Apple and illustrated by Parker-Nia Gordon, last month with Abrams. The book follows a baby who becomes a basketball star after learning the sport from his family. A critic for Kirkus called it “silly and sporty in equal measure.”
Asked what made him want to write a children’s book, Tatum said, “I have to give a lot of credit to the author Sam Apple. His team came to my team two years ago with the idea. It was based on the relationship that I have with my son. Like many parents around the world who read children’s books to their kids at nighttime, that’s just something that we did….and to share a piece of our routine and story with the rest of the world, I was super excited about it.”
Tatum gently declined to say whether the antics of the book’s character—including his constant singing of the infamous earworm "Baby Shark"—were inspired by his own son, Deuce.
“I can’t necessarily say so,” he said with a smile. “Honestly, my favorite part is when him and his teammates take a nap….Obviously as a parent, you need your kids to take a nap. And in the NBA, we all take naps before a game, so that was pretty funny.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
