Will Celtics star Jayson Tatum turn his Olympics experience into motivation for the upcoming season? That’s the opinion of one of the anonymous NBA coaches and executives who talked to Steve Bulpett of Heavy about Tatum’s surprisingly small role with Team USA.
“It’s going to be really interesting to see how Tatum reacts to all of this,” said one former player who’s now in an NBA front office. “From everything I’ve seen and know, he’ll use it as motivation. The great ones always do. They perceive slights even when they’re not there. [Michael Jordan] took everything personal. That’s how a great player becomes a beast.”
Tatum seemed like a good bet to be one of the stars of the U.S. team when the roster was announced. However, his limited role turned out to be one of the few controversies for coach Steve Kerr as the Americans captured the gold medal. Tatum didn’t play at all in the two games against Serbia, and he was often used as the 11th man on a talented roster.
Another executive suggested to Bulpett that Tatum could be the star of Team USA if he decides to return for the 2028 Olympics.
“He got the gold. He didn’t get the role he wanted,” the executive said. “But next time he’ll probably be in the role he wants, with no (Kevin Durant) and no LeBron (James) and no (Stephen Curry) playing. He’ll be the next generation of them.”
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Coach Joe Mazzulla will likely stagger the rest nights for Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis once Porzingis returns from offseason surgery, Brian Robb of MassLive states in a mailbag column. He notes that Mazzulla took a similar approach last season, with Luke Kornet performing well whenever he was asked to start. Robb expects Kornet, Xavier Tillman and possibly Neemias Queta to see regular minutes during the first half of the season.
- Blake Griffin, who officiated Payton Pritchard‘s wedding last week, remains close with his former Celtics teammates, but doesn’t seem likely to join the team as an assistant coach, Robb adds in the same piece. Griffin’s desire to spend more time with his young children played a role in his decision to retire last season instead of re-signing with Boston, so Robb doesn’t believe he would be interested in any job that requires heavy travel.
- In the wake of Thursday’s schedule release, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe looks at the most intriguing matchups for the Celtics on this year’s slate.
Stay healthy and back to the finals with a chance to repeat. The way the pro laker Media still talk about these guys is only going to keep them motivated. That and snubbing Jaylen from the Olympic squad and benching Tatum will all only add more fuel to the fire.
This whole thing is absurd, Tatum played terrible when he did play and did nothing to show he deserved to play. He did not make a single jump shot in olympic play.
You really dont watch basketball. Tatum played sparingly and usually was matched up against bigs. He did a great job on D, which is how you win.
People hate Tatum for some reason. The guys is a stud and a great person.
Today someone criticized him bc he did not “control his family”, all the guy does is win and he takes heat every single time.
Its ok. Celtic fans dont care what the rest of the NBA thinks. We did not care when you went after Tom Brady for a drop in football pressure and we wont care now.
Tatum played terribly. He never really got a chance to play.
BTW Tatum has said NOTHING. People just want to hate him.
Good luck this season. Tatum and Brown are going to lay ruin to the entire league.
Lakers and Warriors will be lucky to get to the finals of the mid season tourney.
I’m not a Celtics fan and I don’t get it either. Although I also don’t use sports as an excuse to be emotional or irrational like a suprising amount of people do.
Dude is a baller who has grown tremendously in his time in the league. He doesn’t stir up trouble, just goes about his business. It’s like people want there to be drama so they make some up.
What’s absurd is caring about who plays during the Olympics.
Celtics fans have been waiting for the Jays mental game to finally catch up with their talent on the court and this recent Finals run has shown me that Jaylen Brown has finally had his Neo moment, where we see that he’s the One and no one can stop him lol. Jayson’s time is coming very soon and all of this Olympics drama has been the perfect backdrop to get him there much sooner.
I am really looking forward to seeing where those two take this franchise in the coming years.
Tatum was 5th in MVP voting. Not one player on USA team was ahead of him.
So Tatum don’t give a F what y’all think. He’s the top gun on the Championship Team .
It’s not that the nba hates tatum they hate the celtics and frankly there scared shitless of tatum and browns age and what they have accomplished all ready but more importantly what they could accomplish in the future