NBA announces finalists for 2023-24 MVP award
Tatum's chances hinged on voters prioritizing the "best player on the best team" sentiment, which tends to not win out in the end. As I have previously mentioned a few times, I believe Tatum's best shot at winning an MVP would be the season after winning a championship. That sounds a bit arse backwards for a regular season award, but that's kind of how voters have acted prior.
As a Celtics fan of course the NBA Finals trophy is much more important than an individual regular season award. And there is something cool about winning a title without having the "top" player on your team. Tatum and his Celtics could very well face one of these three finalists in the upcoming NBA Finals. It would be a similar scenario to when Kevin Garnett's Celtics defeated 2007-2008 NBA MVP Kobe Bryant in that year's Finals.