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Donald Trump’s an enormously wealthy and successful businessman — or so he says. After the bloodbath that was his civil fraud trial fine, he’ll be fine, right? What’s $354.9 million to someone who has it all? Alas, it seems that sum may be too much even for Trump. The fine, combined with a three-year ban on him doing business in his home state of New York, may send the former president into a financial tailspin. But that’s okay, because one die hard fan has come to the rescue.

Per Mother Jones, on Friday a Florida woman named Elena Cardone started a GoFundMe called “Stand with Trump; Fund the $355 Unjust Judgment.” Along with an arguably unnecessary semi-colon, it also inflated the amount Trump was ordered to pay, although he’ll also have to cover interest from when the fine was partly established in the fall. (It also ignores the $83 million Trump owes E. Jean Carroll over her second defamation suit against him, and counting.)

“The recent legal battles he faces are not just an attack on him, but an attack on the very ideals of fairness and due process that every American deserves,” Cardone wrote in the page’s description. “It’s a moment that calls into question the balance of justice and the application of law, disproportionately aimed at silencing a voice that has been at the forefront of advocating for American strength, prosperity, and security.”

In her bio, Cardone claims to be a CEO but she doesn’t mention of what company.

In an interview with her local TV station, ABC affiliate WPLG of Miami, Cardone claimed that she’d “never been a political person with my viewpoint, but this ruling really rocked me to the core.” She added, “When you can allow this to happen to one property owner, this can happen to everyone.”

So how’s the Trump GoFundMe doing? As of this writing, some two days into its run, it’s rasied $304,282, or about 1130th of what’s needed to bail out Trump.

Trump, of course, famously leans on his supporters for cash. Even when he raises money for a cause, he’ll usually just spend it on himself.

(Via Mother Jones)

When San Francisco photographer Lisa Robinson was about to have her second child, she was both excited and nervous.

Sure, those are the feelings most moms-to-be experience before giving birth, but Lisa’s nerves were tied to something different.

She and her husband already had a 9-year-old son but desperately wanted another baby. They spent years trying to get pregnant again, but after countless failed attempts and two miscarriages, they decided to stop trying.

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Of course, that’s when Lisa ended up becoming pregnant with her daughter, Anora. Since it was such a miraculous pregnancy, Lisa wanted to do something special to commemorate her daughter’s birth.

So she turned to her craft — photography — as a way to both commemorate the special day, and keep herself calm and focused throughout the birthing process.

Normally, Lisa takes portraits and does wedding photography, so she knew the logistics of being her own birth photographer would be a somewhat precarious new adventure — to say the least.

“After some thought,” she says, “I figured I would try it out and that it could capture some amazing memories for us and our daughter.”

In the end, she says, Alec was supportive and thought it would be great if she could pull it off. Her doctors and nurses were all for Lisa taking pictures, too, especially because it really seemed to help her manage the pain and stress.

In the hospital, she realized it was a lot harder to hold her camera steady than she initially thought it would be.

“Eventually when it was time to push and I was able to take the photos as I was pushing, I focused on my daughter and my husband and not so much the camera,” she says.

“I didn’t know if I was in focus or capturing everything but it was amazing to do.”

The shots she ended up getting speak for themselves:

“Everybody was supportive and kind of surprised that I was able to capture things throughout. I even remember laughing along with them at one point as I was pushing,” Lisa recalled.

In the end, Lisa was so glad she went through with her experiment. She got incredible pictures — and it actually did make her labor easier.

Would she recommend every mom-to-be document their birth in this way? Absolutely not. What works for one person may not work at all for another.

However, if you do have a hobby that relaxes you, figuring out how to incorporate it into one of the most stressful moments in your life is a pretty good way to keep yourself calm and focused.

Expecting and love the idea of documenting your own birthing process?

Take some advice from Lisa: “Don’t put pressure on yourself to get ‘the shot'” she says, “and enjoy the moment as much as you can.”

Lisa’s mom took this last one.

This article originally appeared on 06.30.16

Years ago, a friend went to a party, and something bothered him enough to rant to me about it later.

And it bothered me that he was so incensed about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. It seemed so petty for him to be upset, and even more so for me to be annoyed with him.

Recently, something reminded me of that scenario, and it made more sense. I’ll explain.

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The party was a house party.

One of those parties people throw if they’re renting a good-sized house in college. You know the type — loud music, Solo cups of beer, and somebody doing something drunk and stupid before the end of the night.

At some point, my friend had occasion to use the bathroom. When he went into the bathroom, he was disgusted to see that the hostess had left a basket of menstrual hygiene products on the counter for guests to use if needed.

Later, when my friend told me about it, he wrinkled his nose and said, “Why would she do that? Guys don’t want to see that!”

When I suggested that she was just making them available in case someone needed them, he insisted they could be left in the cabinet or under the counter. Out of sight, anyway.

I wish I’d had, at the time, the ability to articulate what I can now.

To me, this situation is, while relatively benign, a perfect example of male privilege.

A man walks into the bathroom and sees a reminder that people have periods. And he’s disgusted. He wants that evidence hidden away because it offends his senses. How dare the hostess so blatantly present tampons and pads where a man might see them? There’s no reason for that!

Someone who gets a period walks into the bathroom and sees that the hostess is being extra considerate. They get it. They know what it’s like to have a period start unexpectedly. The feeling of horror because they’re probably wearing something they don’t want ruined — it is a party after all. The sick embarrassment because someone might notice, especially if they’re wearing light-colored clothes, or worse, they sat on the hostess’ white couch.

The self-conscious, semi-nauseated feeling of trying to get through a social event after you’ve exhausted every avenue to get your hands on an emergency pad or tampon, and you’re just hoping to God that if you tie your jacket around your waist (you brought one, right?), keep your back to a wall, clench your butt cheeks, squeeze your thighs tightly together, and don’t … move … at … all — you might get through the evening, bow out gracefully, and find an all-night convenience store with a public restroom.

Or maybe they came to the party during their period, but didn’t bargain for the flow to suddenly get that heavy. Or they desperately need a tampon, but their purse or bag is in a room where a couple is not to be disturbed. Maybe they don’t know the hostess well enough to ask if they can use one. Or they don’t know anyone at the party well enough to ask. Or they figure they can make do with some wadded up toilet paper or something.

Whatever the case, they walk into the bathroom and hear the hostess saying, “Hey, I know what it’s like, and just in case, I’ve got your back.” They see someone saving them from what could be a minor annoyance or a major embarrassment.

The hostess gets it.

The person who just walked into the bathroom? They’re either going to see that the person throwing the party is super considerate or they’re going to be whispering “thanks to Jesus, Krishna, and whoever else is listening” because that is a basket full of social saviors.

But to the guy who wrinkled his nose, it’s still offensive that those terrible little things are on the counter, reminding his delicate sensibilities that the playground part of a person is occasionally unavailable due to a “gross” bodily function that he should never have to think about.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s a tiny thing. It’s a tiny annoyance for the man and a more significant, but relatively tiny, courtesy for the person with their period. After all these years, my friend has probably forgotten, but I never have. As a person whose life is partially governed by a fickle uterus that can ruin an evening faster than a submerged iPhone, his story has stuck with me.

How can you be so offended by a small gesture that has zero effect on you, but could make such an enormous difference to the person who needs it?

It occurs to me now that this is a small but effective illustration of how different people can see the world.

It’s part of the same thought process that measures a woman’s value through her bra size and her willingness to have sex with him — that everything about us is displayed or hidden based on how men perceive them or what he wants to get from us. Unattractive women should be as covered as possible, while attractive ones shouldn’t be hiding their assets from male eyes (or hands, or anything else he wishes to use).

A woman who isn’t smiling is an affront to him because it detracts from her prettiness, despite the fact that there might be a legitimate reason for her not to smile (or more to the point, there isn’t a legitimate reason for her to smile). Her emotional state is irrelevant because she’s not being pretty. It’s the line of thinking where a man blames anything other than cheerful sexual consent on the woman being a bitch, being a lesbian, or — naturally — being on her period. Everything we do, from our facial expressions to our use of hygiene products, is filtered through the lens of “how it looks to a man.”

It’s the line of thinking where a small gesture from one person to another, an assurance that someone else understands and will help without question or judgment, a gesture that could save a person’s evening from being ruined is trumped by a man’s desire to see an untainted landscape of pretty, smiling women with visible cleavage and bodies that never bleed.

And people wonder why we still need feminism.

This story was written by L.A. Witt and originally appeared on 8.12.16

A teacher’s message has gone viral after he let his student sleep in class — for the kindest reason.

Teachers spend time preparing lesson plans and trying to engage students in learning. The least a kid can do is stay awake in class, right?

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But high school English teacher Monte Syrie sees things differently. In a Twitter thread, he explained why he didn’t take it personally when his student Meg fell asleep — and why he didn’t wake her up.

Screenshots via MonteSyrie/Twitter.

Meg’s nap meant she missed an in-class essay, but she turned it in that night. “I didn’t beat her up about it. Didn’t have to,” he wrote. “In a different room, Meg may have been written up for sleeping in class and given a zero for missing and essay, but she wasn’t in a different room; she was in my room.”

Syrie pointed out that sometimes we have to “trust our instincts, even if it goes against the grain.”

Meg is a good student with a lot on her plate. She takes a zero-hour class before the normal school day and does farm chores before that. She runs track. And she’s a teenager, with all of the social, academic, and life pressures that go along with it.

Syrie teaches sophomore English in Cheney, Washington. Photo via Monte Syrie.

And she’s not alone. During the school year, teens report higher levels of stress than adults, and many students report feeling exhausted trying to keep up with it all.

“I think too often the biggest thing that people forget about high school students is that they are kids,” Syrie says. “They’re kids — kids who are having to grow up way too fast and are having way too much pressure put on them, in and out of school … even for our best and brightest, that pressure gets to be too much.”

Syrie’s compassionate story resonated with people because we’ve all been in a position of needing a little grace.

Syrie’s tweets continued, exemplifying how teachers can show kindness and understanding to students. He pointed out, “I can’t offer Meg a math class later in the day. I cannot feed her horses … I cannot run 6 race-pace 300s for her. I cannot spirit away her teen trouble. But I can give her a break.”

Syrie says he tries to be that responsive to all of his students. “Because I firmly believe that one size fits all is madness, I adjust to each student, trusting my instincts, trusting what I know,” he says. “Regardless of our responsibilities, life is hard, and we all need some grace now and then.”

Syrie says he’s had a few negative comments, but overwhelmingly the response has been positive from both students and teachers.

[rebelmouse-image 19397573 dam=”1″ original_size=”665×141″ caption=”Screenshot via Alexa Shaw/Twitter.” expand=1]Screenshot via Alexa Shaw/Twitter.

[rebelmouse-image 19397574 dam=”1″ original_size=”648×96″ caption=”Screenshot via Maria Riverso/Twitter.” expand=1]Screenshot via Maria Riverso/Twitter.

[rebelmouse-image 19397575 dam=”1″ original_size=”661×119″ caption=”Screenshot via Mrs. Chow/Twitter.” expand=1]Screenshot via Mrs. Chow/Twitter.

Syrie has words for those who say that allowing a student to sleep in class doesn’t prepare them for the “real world.”

Some may question whether letting a student sleep in class without consequence is a good idea. Syrie has a response:

“We are not working in factories, stamping out standardized products,” he says. “We are helping young humans — unique individuals — learn about themselves and their worlds. As such, when our young humans face the inevitable pressures of growing up, we need to respond with empathy.”

“And if that does not prepare them for the ‘real world’ as some may suggest, then maybe the world needs to change. I want to live in a world where there’s empathy. That’s the world I want to live in.”

You can read more about the way Syrie is rethinking education on his website.

This article originally appeared on 06.01.18

We’ve all done it. If there is one common human experience, it’s getting the lyrics wrong in a song. I refuse to believe that this isn’t a universal thing that transpires in all countries, cultures and languages, and if you tell me otherwise I’ll have no other choice than to believe you’re lying. But there’s something innocently hilarious about people learning that they’ve been singing the wrong words to popular songs. Someone in a Reddit community decided to ask the question that clearly a lot of people have been waiting to be asked: “What’s a song lyric that you completely misheard for a while?”

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The results were gold, obviously, because lots of lyrics are misheard and sung incorrectly until it’s emblazoned into the part of your brain that’s responsible for holding song lyrics. I remember hanging out with a friend and we were blasting “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis but when the part came when they sing “so we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold us,” my friend belted “so we put our hands up like the silly can holders.” When I told her those weren’t the words she insisted I was mishearing them, so I asked, “what the heck is a silly can holder?!”

Turns out my friend had no idea what a silly can holder was and we had a good laugh. The person on Reddit that asked people to share their misheard lyrics was likely just as entertained. Like when one user’s misheard lyrics gave Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved” a very dark turn, because they heard and sang “ask her if she wants to stay alive” instead of “ask her if she wants to stay a while.” Ma’am-sir, we’re going to need to see what’s in your trunk.

One person thought Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” said “Starbucks lovers” instead of “long list of ex-lovers” and honestly, it’s pumpkin spice season, so Starbucks lovers kind of works. A couple of cozy sweaters, laptops and white cups with a weird mermaid that seems to be holding two tails in her hands could make a great rom-com opening.

Some unfortunate person thought Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” lyrics were “I can’t believe you kiss your cock goodnight.” Now that’s either NSFW or someone has a really close relationship with their rooster. Either way, those lyrics are unequivocally wrong because the actual words are, “I can’t believe you kiss your car goodnight.” Car! Sweet mother of pearl, I hope they weren’t singing that in public.

Who remembers Dido? “White Flag” was definitely a bop in the early 2000s but this person thought the singer said “I will poke my eyes out and surrender.” Let’s hope they do in fact still have their eyes because the actual lyrics are, “And I won’t put my hands up and surrender,” which obviously makes much sense—bonus points for getting to keep your eyeballs.

Some of these misheard lyrics are just hilarious and also confusing because I can’t quite figure out how this person heard “I got shoes, they’re made of plywood.” The words are, and as far as I know have always been “I’ve got chills, they’re multiplying” in the Grease song “You’re the One That I Want.”

But this last one has me wondering who is Jason and why does he get his own waterfall? This user thought TLC sang “don’t go Jason waterfalls” in their hit song “Waterfalls.” I mean, we probably shouldn’t be chasing waterfalls like the lyrics actually say, but Jason waterfalls might be a pretty cool dude. We’ll never know though.

If you’ve never known the hilarity and embarrassment of mishearing lyrics, consider yourself lucky. But I’m highly suspicious that you’re making that up. No one’s that perfect, people aren’t tacos. Now go forth and belt out “pour some shook-up ramen” while the rest of the crowd demands they be doused with sugar.

This article originally appeared on 09.24.22

The fact that beavers build dams is one of nature’s coolest features. Gathering and stacking tree branches, rocks, grass and mud across a river so they can build their homes underwater is a unique instinct among the animals—and a strong one.

Apparently, it’s so strong that beavers will build dams anywhere, including inside a human’s house using whatever items they can find.

A video shared by Dr. Holley Muraco, director of research at the Mississippi Aquarium, shows a female beaver named Sawyer busily gathering stuffed animals, blankets, Christmas decorations, wrapping paper and more to build a dam in a hallway, and it’s seriously the most delightful thing ever.

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Sawyer pauses once in a while to assess her work, which is adorable. And her ongoing struggle with SpongeBob SquarePants’ legs is a must-see.

If you’re concerned about seeing natural animal behavior like this in an unnatural habitat, don’t worry. Muraco explains that Sawyer spends most of her time outdoors with other beavers, but also likes to come in the house occasionally. More on Sawyer’s life story below, but first, behold her adorableness at work:

Sawyer is one of three orphaned beavers Muraco is rehabbing at her home with the help of Woodside Wildlife Rescue.

“Sawyer is one of a kind,” Muraco tells Upworthy. “Very opinionated and, as crazy as it sounds, intelligent. I raised Sawyer on a bottle in our home and then introduced her to Huck and Finn who are a bit older. All three were orphaned separately when their parents were killed. The three were sent to Woodside Wildlife to be raised as siblings.”

Sawyer, Huck and Finn. Perfection.

Muraco says Sawyer started building dams in her kennel as a tiny baby and then moved on to building bigger dams in the hallway. She lives outside with Huck and Finn, but she walks to Muraco’s back door when she wants to go inside to check on things and build a new dam.

Muraco says beavers are very social creatures and do better living in a group, but are also one of the most difficult animals to rehab. They have to spend up to two years with rehabbers, which is how long they would spend with their parents in the wild, and caring for them is challenging due to their complex and sensitive digestive needs. They are also prone to illness and there’s a lot that’s still unknown about vet care for them. Muraco says beavers are also considered a nuisance animal, especially in Mississippi, so it can be hard to find a safe place to release them.

In Muraco’s care, Sawyer, Huck and Finn get ample opportunities to practice instinctive behaviors, which is a vital element of rehabilitation. The ultimate goal is for them to return to the wild once they meet key milestones.

Raising beavers is a lot of work, but Muraco is dedicated to preparing these young ‘uns for life after rehab, both for their own good and for the environment. “Beavers are a keystone species and are often critical for healthy wetlands,” she explains. They are misunderstood creatures and are sometimes killed by people who simply see them as pests, which is one reason Muraco publicly shares her adventures with Sawyer, Huck and Finn.

“We are so excited that people are enjoying watching the beavers and falling in love with this unusual, quirky rodent,” she says.

If anyone wants to support these beaver rescue efforts, Muraco invites people to donate to Woodside Wildlife Rescue.

This article originally appeared on 01.13.23

Beef is a permanent dish on hip-hop’s menu; anyone can be served a heaping helping. While time can sometimes aid in relationship mending, that’s not always the cause for rappers. Benzino and Eminem’s longstanding feud is a prime example of this. In the past few weeks alone, they’ve each dropped disses toward the other. So, during Benzino’s recent appearance on Drink Champs, the host couldn’t help but ask about it.

Throughout the episode uploaded on February 17, Benzino took several jabs at Eminem. At one point, he even implied that Eminem’s rise to fame in rap was due to him being white. However, near the end of the sit down (the 2-hour 34-minute mark), Benzino, overwhelmed with emotion and alcohol, reflected on how his issue with Eminem has impacted his daughter Uproxx cover star Coi Leray.

“I don’t have nothing against Eminem,” he said. “He can rap, but I care about us more. I don’t want to talk about it no more,” he said. “My daughter came to industry figuring ‘I gotta be cool with Eminem because everybody is against my dad. I don’t hate Eminem. I don’t know him to hate him. I don’t hate white people tired of this sh*t, man. It’s just too much. I don’t want to be the bad guy.”

Leray previously spoke about how Benzino’s past mix-ups could have derailed her career, including her guest verse from Nicki Minaj on “Blick Blick.”

Watch Benzino’s full interview on the Drink Champs podcast above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Acting isn’t hard work the way, say, coal-mining is, but it ain’t easy. Among the most difficult aspects is learning one’s lines. One doesn’t want to screw up a take or, if they’re on stage, suffer a crippling brain fart in front of a paying audience. Each thespian has their own method for memorizing dialogue, some more out-there than most. For instance, the way Pedro Pascal is, by his own admission, absolutely deranged.

Per Deadline, the Mandalorian actor took part in a SAG-AFTRA Foundation roundtable with his fellow Outstanding Performance by Male Actor in a Drama Series nominees. At one point he told participants Billy Crudup, Matthew Macfadyen, and Kieran Culkin that he betted he could “show you a psychotic physical example of what I now have to do to learn my lines.”

And indeed he did, busting out a paper that looked straight-up like a cipher made by the Zodiac killer, with letters divided into rows. “This is like a psycho first letter of every word,” he said. “You see the letters, right? Basically, I’m the Unabomber.”

Pascal then attempted to further explain how it works:

“You use the first letter of each in these towers or columns, I guess, and it’s this very, very tedious way of making yourself learn the line so that you’re not making choices. It’s not even sort of artistic, it’s just this really technical way I’ve had to acquire because of that terrible experience of forgetting my lines.”

What did his fellow actors think of it? “Gibberish,” concluded Culkin, agreeing that he’s the Unabomber.

But hey, whatever works for Pascal, who said he learned to use this the hard way, after a “horrible experience” doing Much Ado About Nothing for Shakespeare in the Park in 2014, when he blanked on one of his lines. You keep doing you!

You can watch the full chat in the video below. The weird line reading business begins around the 20-minute mark.

(Via Deadline)

No matter which side you lean toward in University Music Group and TikTok’s ongoing debate, you can’t deny the social media network’s impact on the industry. Sophie Ellis-Bextor can attest to this. After the singer’s 2001 song, “Murder On The Dancefloor,” was featured in the conclusion of Saltburn, users on the app quickly began using it in their posts.

As the fictional character Oliver Quick (played by Barry Keoghan) showed off his happy feet, folks feverishly tried to recreate the footloose scene, including Ellis-Bextor herself. Today (February 18), Ellis-Bextor brought her best moves to the 2024 BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards) with a groovy performance of the record.

Although the film’s stars didn’t come out for a shocking moment, on stage, Ellis-Bextor and her army of dancers held it down, showing why the over twenty-year track will never get old.

During an interview with Brisbane Times, Ellis-Bextor shared her feelings about the track’s rise in popularity due to its feature in the film and the scene’s virality on TikTok. “You get very clever people like Emerald Fennell to sort of tap into the cyclical nature of things,” she said. “In the 1990s, we reminisced about the 1970s, the music came back, the fashion came back, and now it feels like people are repeating that with the 2000s. Either way, it’s very fun for me and Natasha [Bedingfield].”

Watch Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s full performance courtesy of the BAFTA Awards below.

The incredible @SophieEB gets the party started with a fabulous performance of Murder On The Dancefloor 🪩 #EEBAFTAs pic.twitter.com/wkHMEfQBDI

— BAFTA (@BAFTA) February 18, 2024

INDIANAPOLIS — Jayson Tatum has steadily established himself as one of the NBA’s elite players over his seven seasons with the Celtics. On Sunday night he will play in his fifth consecutive All-Star Game, his fourth as a starter, and is coming off of a 55-point performance a year ago that earned him All-Star MVP honors.

All that is to say, Tatum has become a staple of All-Star Weekend and becoming the leading star on a franchise like the Boston Celtics comes with ample attention and responsibility. On Saturday afternoon, Tatum stopped by Ruffles’ activation at Nap or Nothing in Indy to interact with fans and give them a chance to see him up close, and as he explained when we sat down prior, that’s one of the most important parts of All-Star Weekend.

“I think it goes hand-in-hand,” Tatum said. “Like part of being an All-Star is the fans voting and wanting you to be here and I think being in some ways accessible and being able to come to things like this so they can see you and see your participation and see you actually are organic with the brands that you partner with. You know fans are smart, they remember things like that. Obviously I’m excited to be here with Ruffles and part of this Ridgeline experience, and any time you get to be interactive with the fans and give them a chance to be a part of All-Star Weekend and get a chance to unlock gifts and things like that. I think it’s just better for everybody.”

It’s all part of being in a leadership role with a team like the Celtics, which Tatum admits has taken some time for him to get comfortable with. As a naturally quiet guy, the star forward has had to grow into being a more vocal leader alongside the more natural “lead by example” tendencies to his work.

“Just doing it at your own pace, right. Everybody leads differently,” Tatum says. “I’m not the loudest guy in the room, but, you know, understand that your voice matters and people respect you by the work that you put in — show up every day, do your job, and when you have the right intentions. So just growing into your own skin, you know, through your experience in the league, people see that.”

On the floor, Tatum has gone from a helpful piece of a playoff team to the top star. While it’s one thing to make a leap into the All-Star conversation, it’s another to become a true superstar, the kind of guy that can be the best player on a championship team. That’s what Tatum is looking to prove this season, and when asked what it takes to make that leap, he quickly highlights one aspect of the game that’s crucial.

“Consistency,” Tatum explains. “Everybody can be special on one night or have a good month. But you know, can you do it for 82 games? Can you do it year after year after year? You know defenses are meant to stop you and you’re the main focus every night. Can you be efficient? Can you make other people better? Can you impact winning? When you’re doing all those things every single night, game after game after game, you’re doing something right.”

Since coming into the league, Tatum has known nothing but success at the NBA level. His Celtics teams have made the playoffs each season and have reached at least the Conference Finals four times in six years. However, with all of that success comes a lot of pressure now to not only get in the mix for a title, but to actually win a championship.

At 43-12, the Celtics have the best record in the NBA by a wide margin — four games ahead of Minnesota and six games ahead of Cleveland in the East. Regular season success isn’t new to Boston, but they do seem to be firing on all cylinders at the moment. It’s the second year with Joe Mazzulla at the helm, who like Tatum has been finding his way after suddenly being thrust into the lead role in Boston shortly before last season started. This year Tatum feels Mazzulla has been more comfortable in that position after having a full offseason to prepare and build out his staff, and that’s one of the reasons the Celtics have been able to be as good as they are.

“Getting that year under his belt, I think it was big,” Tatum says of his coach. “He got a whole offseason to prepare, he got the coaching staff and hired some guys that best fit him and the style he wanted to coach. And I think you’ve just seen him relax a lot more and he’s a lot more sure of himself and a lot more comfortable in his position as the head coach, and he’s taking responsibility.”

This year’s Celtics roster also looks different after a big offseason of moves, headlined by adding Kristaps Porzingis in a trade for Marcus Smart. That was a gamble by Brad Stevens and the organization to take away a player that was considered the heart of Boston’s locker room, their vocal leader, and perimeter defensive ace. They were banking on Derrick White thriving in that point guard role, Tatum and Jaylen Brown to embrace their leadership positions to keep things on track, and Porzingis to bring them a more dynamic offensive attack. To this point, that’s all worked out, with White having a terrific season, Tatum and Brown further adding to their roles as leaders, and Porzingis making them more dangerous.

Adding Jrue Holiday via trade only bolstered the overall attack more, and gave them another proven leader on both sides of the ball.

As Tatum explains, with their current group there’s no longer an easy decision for defenses. They can create more pressure points for the defense and to eliminate one of those, you have to give something up — and now that’s to a player well-equipped to take advantage.

“It’s tough. I mean, I feel like guarding us, you got to give up something. You can’t stop everything,” Tatum says. “And I think that’s what we were trying to build. Get the right guys in place in our system that you might have to give up something and you have to give it up to a really good player.”

Tatum and the Celtics know regular season success is no longer the bar they will be measured by — and even making it to the NBA’s final four isn’t enough. They are now a team that will be judged by championships. Tatum believes they are equipped to do that, noting they’re not just a talented group but one that enjoys playing with each other. In a few months they’ll get their chance to prove they’ve made the right moves as team to win and Tatum will get his chance to cement his status as one of the NBA’s premier players.