Jayson Tatum reminds Lakers of how they fumbled a golden opportunity

The Los Angeles Lakers have compiled a long list of regrets at the NBA Draft. It's a harsh but valid statement that epitomizes the issues the organization has encountered when attempting to build a sustainably competitive team.

One of the most retrospectively polarizing decisions in franchise history was the choice to select Lonzo Ball instead of Jayson Tatum at No. 2 overall at the 2017 NBA Draft.

Markelle Fultz and Ball were locked in as the top two picks at the 2017 NBA Draft long before the event took place. That created a chaotic series of twists and turns that ultimately saw the Boston Celtics trade down from No. 1 to No. 3 and select Tatum in a move that has redefined the franchise's trajectory.

In an appearance on The Club 520 Podcast, Tatum, a self-professed Kobe Bryant fan, told the story of how not being drafted by Los Angeles devastated him—due in no small part to the fact they never showed interest in him.

The Lakers were all-in on Ball, but the fact that they never even watched Tatum work out is one of the biggest blunders in franchise history.

Lakers never even watched a Jayson Tatum pre-draft workout

The obvious context here is that the Lakers selected Brandon Ingram at No. 2 overall in the 2016 NBA draft. As such, there were rational concerns about about how the pairing of Ingram and Tatum would work at a time when positions were still at least somewhat traditionally defined.

As such, the overnight evolution of the NBA into a more positionless game must be taken into account when discussing the Lakers' decision to select Ball.

The thought process at the time was that Ball could be the two-way playmaker who tied everything together. For the moment, that was a promising formula, as the quartet of Ball, Josh Hart, Ingram, and Kyle Kuzma seemed to represent the future of Lakers basketball.

That dream ended when Ball, Hart, and Ingram were included in the trade for Anthony Davis, which has since produced a championship and a second Conference Finals appearance.

For as true as that may be, the Celtics were in a similar situation when they selected Tatum. They drafted Jaylen Brown just one year prior and took a chance on a team with two potentially ball-dominant wings being able to contend.

Brown and Tatum have now won a championship, reached a second NBA Finals, and made five Conference Finals appearances as a tandem.

In a perfect world, the Lakers would've selected Tatum and kept him out of potential negotiations for Davis. Los Angeles would've then built its team around the trio of Davis, LeBron James, and Tatum, and would likely have won more than the one championship they secured during that time.

Everyone knows what they say about hindsight, but Tatum mentioning that the Lakers didn't even entertain the possibility of drafting him is salt in the wound.