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Steph Curry shares message for Jayson Tatum amid Olympics benching
"He was amazing the way he handled it. He never let it become something that impacted the group."
Just a few weeks after reaching the summit of basketball immortality by winning an NBA title, Jayson Tatum found himself mired on the bench.
Despite playing a key role in Team USA’s gold-medal run during the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tatum spent a majority of the 2024 Olympic Games on the outside looking in at head coach Steve Kerr’s rotations.
Tatum played the second-fewest minutes of any player on Team USA’s roster this summer and did not log a minute of game action in two games against Serbia.
Even with another gold medal added to his resume following Team USA’s latest conquest, Tatum has been candid about his latest Olympics experience and the struggles that came with his limited role.
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Speaking with Sports Illustrated earlier this week, fellow Team USA star and Warriors guard Steph Curry shared the message he gave to Tatum during the 2024 Olympics.
“All I told him is, ‘You’re a dog. You know who you are and embrace who you are. When it comes back around, you know you’re going to be asked to help our team at some point.’ That was my message,” Curry said of his comments to Tatum. “He was amazing the way he handled it.
“He never let it become something that impacted the group. You gotta give him credit for that because it’s not easy. We all expect greatness and we all want to be a part of it. He handled a very tough situation like a professional.”
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Speaking last month, Tatum said that he’s trying to make the most of his Olympics experience.
“Motivation, I guess you could say that if you want to simplify it. In real time, it was tough,” Tatum said in September during the Celtics’ Media Day. “I talked to (head coach) Joe (Mazzulla) a lot. Joe was probably the happiest person in the world that I didn’t win Finals MVP and that I didn’t play in two of the games in the Olympics. So, that was odd. But if you know Joe, it makes sense.”
So far, Tatum has let his play do the talking in 2024-25, taking home Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors on Monday after averaging 33.0 points per game over Boston’s first three matchups this year.
Along with averaging 6.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game, Tatum is shooting the lights out so far this year, sinking 54.7 percent of his shots to go along with 48.6 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc.
Tatum will get an opportunity to get back at Kerr next month when the Warriors play Boston at TD Garden on Nov. 6.
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“I think they’re going to be all over me,” Kerr told NBA.com when asked about Celtics fans during that game. “That’s fine.”
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