Jayson Tatum’s message to those still talking about Olympic benching
Jayson Tatum doesn’t want to hear anyone else’s thoughts on the matter.
The Celtics star, famously glued to the bench during Team USA’s run to the gold medal in Paris over the summer, shook off the idea of Wednesday’s loss to the Warriors — helmed by Olympic coach Steve Kerr — as a revenge game.
“I mean, that’s part of this job, that’s what I’ve been dealing with my entire career,” Tatum told reporters Wednesday. “People want me to be louder, people want me to be meaner, whatever. One thing about Jayson is, I’m always going to do what the f–k I want to do.”
Tatum scored 32 points in the 118-112 loss, but the Boston crowd had his back, offering up boos to Kerr during pregame introductions.
The three-time NBA champion coach didn’t seem to have any regrets coming into the matchup.
“I don’t give it a whole lot of thought other than I didn’t enjoy not playing Jayson against Serbia, not playing Joel (Embiid) against South Sudan,” Kerr said.
“Those are not fun decisions, but our guys were all amazing,” he said. “They committed to each other. They committed to winning the gold medal. They brought the gold home for their country. They all handled themselves with incredible dignity and class, and that’s the real story. But we live in a time where we have to talk about stuff that actually doesn’t really matter.”
Tatum called his Olympic experience “humbling,” but didn’t not otherwise engage in any of the noise surrounding Kerr’s lineup choices — even as his own mother raised questions as Team USA barreled toward its latest domination of the Games.
The 26-year-old, coming off a season in which he won an NBA title with the Celtics, made his fifth straight All-Star Game, was named to a third consecutive All-NBA First Team and earned a league-record five-year, $314 million extension, doesn’t plan on changing the ways that got him there.
“People who react differently, it’s easy to say if they were in my shoes what they would do,” he said. “I appreciate when it comes from a good place, but like I said I’m always going to react, respond, approach things the way I want to.”
