With as much talent as this past summer’s U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team took to Paris, someone was bound to get the short end of the playing time stick. Tyrese Haliburton was a pretty predictable also-ran for his defensive deficiencies, but the other odd man created a lot more of a stir.
Jayson Tatum, coming off his third straight first-team All-NBA selection and the first championship of what is almost certainly already a Hall of Fame career, was relegated to the end Steve Kerr’s bench while Boston teammates Jrue Holiday and Derrick White played vital roles en route to the gold medal.
Hard as it was to believe for a player of his caliber, Tatum didn’t even get on the floor for two full games. He never even had to take his warmups off. That didn’t exactly make Kerr a popular man in Boston, and Celtics fans were there to greet him with a chorus of boos before Boston’s game vs. the Warriors on Wednesday night.
This was a predictable reception after the backlash that came Kerr’s way for his benching of Tatum, but it’s hard to argue with Kerr’s logic given the way the Americans played and how little room they had for error in a very tightly-contested tournament once they reached the semifinals.
Surely it could be argued that Tatum could’ve gotten at least some spot minutes without compromising the outcome of the tournament, but again, the Americans got past Serbia and France by the skin of their teeth.
Tatum, who admitted the Olympics were a “tough personal experience,” simply didn’t shoot the ball well at 38% for the tournament, and off-ball shooting was at a premium as the offense was going to be controlled, deservedly, by LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry. Devin Booker wound up being a far more impactful player in all facets, and just seemed to fit better in the starting lineup as a spacer and secondary playmaker.
But that clearly didn’t change how Boston fans feel about the situation.