Jayson Tatum reflects on “humbling” minor role at Paris 2024

USA Basketball underlined a dominant campaign at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by beating hosts France 98-87 in Saturday’s final. It brought up a fifth consecutive gold medal for the United States and the country’s 17th in total.

Along the way, there were overwhelming group stage victories against Serbia (110-84), South Sudan (96-85) and Puerto Rico 104-83.

In the quarter-finals they defeated Brazil 122-87, then staged an epic comeback to beat Serbia again (95-91), with NBA stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry right at the very top of their game.

United States take big guns to Paris

The United States Olympic basketball roster was packed full of NBA stars - household names who are role models for their teams. Understandably, fans were especially excited to see their team’s key figures. Perhaps the player they expected to take center stage in Paris was Jayson Tatum, who had just come off the back of a great season with the Boston Celtics.

But the forward had limited playing time, and was even on the bench for two of the team’s games. He spoke about the low key role he was given at the Games.

“A lot of people texted me and reached out and were like, ‘Make sure this fuels you,’ which I appreciate,” Tatum told the Boston Globe. “There’s a lot of people that care about me. But I think the tough part is, yes, you can use things to fuel you, but, you know, I’m still human, and it’s still a human aspect, part of being in the moment. I sacrificed and put a lot into this game and worked really, really hard,”.

He added, “So, you know, in the moment it’s tough, so I’m not necessarily worried about fueling me for November or whatever the season is. But like I said, it’s something I’m going to take away from this and learn and from this experience, definitely challenging and humbling at the same time. I had fun - I did. It was a great team of guys to be around, we went to some great cities and different countries, and we won the gold medal.”

Jayson Tatum not thinking about LA28

Tatum played the second-fewest minutes of anyone on the roster, even though teammates Jrue Holiday and Derrick White got more minutes. According to the statistics, Tatum had the worst field goal percentage on the team at 38.1% and did not make a jump shot on 16 occasions.

Nevertheless, the Celtics player is now a two-time gold medalist and also took the time to respond about his possible presence at the 2028 Olympic Games that will be held in Los Angeles.

“It was a difficult personal experience on the court, but I’m not going to make any decisions based on emotions,” he replied bluntly.

“If you asked me now if I’m going to play in 2028, it would be four years from now and I’d have to take some time to think about it. So I’m not going to make any decision based on how this experience was or how I felt individually,” he concluded.

Meanwhile USA Basketball coach Steve Kerr explained that Tatum’s minor role at the Games wasn’t anything personal.

“It’s not about anything Jayson is doing or not doing. It’s just about combinations and the way that group has played together, the way Kevin has filled in since he came back from his injury. It’s just a math problem more than anything,” Kerr said.

He concluded, “It’s not what I’m not seeing from Jayson. It’s what I’ve seen from the other guys. Like I’ve said many times during this tournament and this last six weeks, it’s just hard to play 11 people, even in an NBA game.”