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USA Basketball head coach Steve Kerr says he was “really impressed” by Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum’s reaction to receiving limited playing time during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Tatum, who had recently led the Celtics to a title while playing more than 40 minutes per night, averaged under 18 off the bench during Team USA’s gold medal run.
“I was really impressed with Jayson, how he handled it,” Kerr said on Tuesday’s episode of The TK Show, an Audacy Sports podcast (14:00 mark.) “He’s an amazing player, and just came off winning a championship, signing the biggest contract in the NBA history. And then to face that kind of media scrutiny, and questioning about playing, that’s not easy on him. And he handled it beautifully.”
Kerr continued: “For us as a coaching staff, literally the first night that we met, before we even stepped on the floor, my message to the team was: Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. There’s 12 of you guys, you’re probably all going to the Hall of Fame, and I can only play nine of you.
“The first thing I said was, every game’s gonna be different. We don’t know how it’s going to unfold… we just have to commit to winning. And the guys did that, they all did that, every one of them. It was an incredible display of unity, and commitment, and selflessness, and they all were brilliant.”
Tatum previously told The Athletic’s Jared Weiss that the media coverage of his time in Paris, during which he was benched for a group stage game and a semifinal contest, was “a lot” to handle.
The Celtics star, who also won gold with Team USA in 2020, averaged 5.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while helping the Americans to a fifth straight Olympic title.
NBA insider Shams Charania said during a Wednesday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show that Tatum told the national team that his limited role in Paris fueled his aspiration to win an MVP award in the NBA.
“Jayson Tatum, he was telling people around USA Basketball, and this was something people on USA Basketball heard: he really took that motivation from what happened at the Olympics,” Charania said (4:30 mark.) “He has MVP goals in his year, whether that’s this year, but that’s fully on his mind as far as what he can accomplish in this league.”
Tatum said during the Celtics’ media day on Tuesday that he hasn’t “figured out” what led to his benching in Paris.
“I’m not gonna give anybody in particular credit that they’re motivating me to come into the season,” Tatum told reporters. “It was a unique circumstance, something I haven’t experienced before in my playing career. But I’m a believer that everything happens for a reason. I was coming off a championship, the highest of the highs, cover of 2K, a new contract, and that happened. And whatever the reason is, I haven’t figured out yet. But I am a believer that everything happens for a reason.
“But it was a good experience. We won a gold medal… I was around some of the best players to ever play the game on a daily basis.”
Tatum will look to bring whatever lessons or motivation he gained from his experience playing alongside LeBron James and Steph Curry in Paris as the Celtics prepare for next Friday’s preseason opener on the road against the Denver Nuggets.
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Publish date : 2024-09-25 10:02:00
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