Jrue Holiday admits it was ‘weird’ to see Jayson Tatum benched in the Olympics
"He wasn't pouting. I could tell you that."
Jrue Holiday was one of three Celtics who took home a gold medal playing for Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Both Holiday and Derrick White served as two reliable backcourt options in head coach Steve Kerr’s rotation during the international tournament. The same can’t be said for Jayson Tatum.
Coming off of a dominant 2023-24 season where Tatum helped lead Boston to an 18th championship, the star forward was expected to be a fixture atop Team USA’s depth chart.
After all, Tatum played a key role in Team USA’s gold-medal win during the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo (20.5 minutes per game, 15.2 points per game).
But in the 2024 Games, Tatum only played 71 total minutes across four games — with Kerr opting to sit Tatum out of two games against Serbia. Only 24-year-old guard Tyrese Haliburton saw less action for Team USA than Tatum during the tournament.
While Tatum has been vocal about the highs and lows that came with the 2024 Olympics, Holiday admitted in a recent interview on Paul George’s “Podcast P” show that he was also surprised to see Tatum’s minutes sapped in Paris.
“Was it weird? Yeah — it’s Jayson Tatum,” Holiday admitted. “What do you mean? Top five player in the league. Just won a championship, one of the best players in the playoffs and in the [NBA Finals’. When it was happening, like, yeah, you feel for him. You could see that, yeah, he’s upset.”
For Holiday, who also won a gold medal alongside Tatum during the 2020 Olympics, it was a bittersweet feeling to see Tatum stuck on the bench during critical games against Nikola Jokic and Serbia.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity or experience where you get to be around some of the greatest athletes in the world,” Holiday said. “On the flip side, like just winning the championship with my boys, and then knowing how good they are, and they are good enough to be on this team, it’s definitely hard to see. Because, I mean, you want the best for your man.”
Even though Tatum was upset about falling out of Kerr’s rotation, Holiday stressed that the Celtics star didn’t let those frustrations bleed into Team USA’s approach during the tournament.
“He wants to play,” Holiday said of Tatum. “What’s going to be best for the team? I don’t want to mess up any chemistry. He wasn’t pouting. I could tell you that. He would get in the gym. It’s not like he stopped working. He was the one seriously trying to be like, ‘All right, well, I’m gonna stay ready whenever my numbers are called.”
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