Jayson Tatum Finally Opens Up About Being Benched During Olympics

Jayson Tatum’s struggles at the 2024 Paris Olympics have been well-chronicled over the past month and change.

For reasons that weren’t initially totally clear, despite him being fresh off winning his first NBA championship, Tatum was benched for the vast majority of Team USA’s march to a gold medal.

It wasn’t until after the Olympics ended that Kerr finally explained his logic, and despite Stephen Curry backing him up, many still felt like Tatum shouldn’t have been benched.

Tatum himself didn’t hold back when originally asked about it.

This week, with the Olympics now having been some weeks removed, Tatum took a more retrospective look on his time in Paris.

“It’s one of those things where there’s been so much talk and debate,” Tatum said to Jared Weiss of The Athletic.

“There was a period of is he a superstar or not? Then it was a big debate, like, is he championship ready now? Then it’s like how could he not get in the (Olympics)?

“I’m like, I just won a championship, it’s the summertime, it might be nice to have a little break where you don’t turn on ESPN and they’re talking about you. But I guess this is part of it, and that may be the level that I’ve reached now in my career.”

Tatum also admitted that because of the day and age we live in, the whole situation was a bit harder than it might have been in the past.

“It was a lot. In the age of social media, you see everything. You see all the tweets and the people on the podcasts and people on TV giving their opinion on whether they thought it was a good decision or it was an outrageous decision or whatever,” Tatum continued.

“Obviously, I wanted to contribute more, and I’ve never been in (this) situation. I started playing basketball at (age) 3 at the YMCA, and I’ve never not played, so it was different and it was challenging.”

It will be interesting to see what version of Tatum comes back for the 2024-25 NBA season. If he goes back to being the player he used to be, everyone will forget his Olympic run. But if his confidence is rattled now – it could have lasting ramifications for the Celtics’ upcoming campaign.

Anthony Amador

A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school Games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.