Did Jayson Tatum Confront Steve Kerr About Olympic Benchings? Celtics Star Opens Up

Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum could have let his emotions boil over and get the best of him.

The four-time All-NBA selection, fresh off leading the Celtics to an NBA title, was benched by Team USA head coach Steve Kerr in two out of six games at the Olympics. Tatum playing sparingly in the other contests.

Not many would have blamed Tatum if he gave an earful to Kerr, who faced a tremendous amount of criticism from seemingly everywhere for keeping one of the NBA's top players sidelined on a star-filled team.

But Tatum said he didn't confront Kerr over the lack of playing time and instead put Team USA over his individual needs en route to winning his second gold medal Saturday in Paris.

"No. I just stayed a professional," Tatum told reporters, per The Boston Globe's Tara Sullivan. "I came to work every day. Just stay ready. We got great guys on this team and while you feel like you deserve to play and the competitor in you wants to play, as a coach for a reason he makes those decisions. Your job as a player is to stay ready whenever your number is called."

Seeing how things played out on the Celtics this season had to have helped the 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward in this situation. Tatum seemed to adapt the mindset of the contingent of role players on the Celtics who rarely saw the floor during Boston's championship run but never complained -- at least not publicly -- about their position on the team.

Tatum didn't play in the Olympic opener against Serbia and was benched again in the semifinal matchup against the same Nikola Jokic-led squad, in which Team USA overcame a 17-point deficit to earn a narrow 95-91 win.

After his second benching, Tatum was the first player off Team USA's bench in the gold medal contest against France. But he hardly made an impact in his 11 minutes on the court in the 98-87 victory. He shot 1-for-3 from the field for two points and grabbed three rebounds.

Tatum said he won't let what happened during the Olympics impact his decision to play in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. But this surely couldn't have been what Tatum had in mind when he signed up in pursuit of a gold medal.

"It was challenging," Tatum said. "I can't lie. It was challenging. Especially after the experience of the highest of the highest winning a championship, and then put in a new situation where you've never been in that spot before. But you know, I didn't want to make it about me. I got a chance to come to work with 11 other guys I got nothing but love and respect for. And you know, we won. I'm happy about that."