Brandy Cole-Barnes Reveals When she Knew Son Jayson Tatum Would be a Star

Brandy Cole-Barnes, Jayson Tatum's mother and St. Louis attorney, joined the TODAY Show to discuss her son

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Jayson Tatum has blossomed into star since being drafted No. 3 overall by the Boston Celtics in 2017, but his mother Brandy Cole-Barnes has known what he was capable of for much longer than that.

Cole-Barnes sat down with Sheinelle Jones on the TODAY Show Thursday morning to talk all things from her relationship with her son, to continuing her education and raising Tatum as a young mom. 

She has been with Tatum all along the way, and gave some insight to Jones on when she first knew that the three-time All-Star could be special basketball-wise.

"Around fourth grade," Cole-Barnes said to Jones Thursday's episode. "I always knew he was gifted. He would do things and make moves that you just couldn't teach, right? It was just like innate to him." 

Cole-Barnes also dove into how she would motivate Tatum early on and how watching him play basketball has changed over the years since joining the Celtics.

"It has changed," Cole-Barnes said. "Early on, I was still in that I have to push you. I would text him at half-time because I felt like he needed a little fire up under him. I'd be like, 'Are you going to play today?' Then I realized fans are pretty brutal and I realized everybody in this arena was on his back or social media and everybody so then I decided that needed to have one place to look that's always a head nod or you got it. Something reassuring." 

The love between the mother and son certainly is something special. 

You can check out the full video of the interview between Cole-Barnes and Jones right here.

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