Going into the 2024 Paris Olympics, expectations were high on Jayson Tatum to have a big role within the Team USA squad. After all, alongside Jaylen Brown, he led the Boston Celtics to their first championship win, since 2008. Unfortunately, head coach Steve Kerr severely limited his on-court minutes, due to which he had the second-lowest accumulated playing time out of the 12-man squad. Despite having won the gold medal, Tatum has not shied away from making his displeasure known to the head coach.

The Tatum-Kerr controversy was discussed in a segment of ‘Celtics Beat’. ‘The Boston Globe’ columnist, Chad Finn, highlighted how Kerr revealed he “felt like an idiot” for not playing Tatum in the first game against Serbia. Despite this, the coach stood by his own decision by explaining that the lineup had to be built around which best players would take on the European team.

Finn felt that after the explanation, Kerr would come out as a “hypocrite” if he decided to give Tatum some playing time after USA-Serbia clashed again in the Semi-Finals. Fortunately, Kerr stood his ground and excluded the Celtics star from that matchup as well. Therefore, the reporter felt that the blame for the Tatum-Kerr controversy being blown out of proportion belongs somewhere else.

“Celtics fans react to this stuff. It gets engagement, it gets clicks, it gets impressions. It becomes something where the response carries from day-to-day rather than just petering out,” said Finn. “There were other factors. I mean, Kendrick Perkins probably has the worst takes of any NBA analysts. He has a prominent gig, and he’s an ex-Celtic. So, that plays into it, I think, a little bit.”

Kendrick Perkins, who has been serving as an ESPN analyst since his NBA retirement in 2018, was amongst the first to react after Kerr’s decision to not play Tatum against Serbia made headlines. In a segment of ‘First Take’ back in July, he went on to state “You know what Jayson Tatum is going to bring to the table. You do not disrespect him and embarrass him the way that you did.” Perkins further highlighted that the social media world of today would paint Tatum’s snub in a bad light, which would set the roots for embarrassment.

Whether it was Kendrick Perkins’s remarks or not, Jayson Tatum being benched soon became a major topic of discussion in the NBA world. 96-year-old former Boston Celtics player, Bob Cousy, also followed Perkins’s rhetoric by stating “This is an embarrassment for that poor kid all over the [expletive] world. The Olympics have gotten that big. Everyone’s going to think that there’s something wrong this this kid.”

After American Rapper Vince Staples put out a tweet stating “WE WILL AVENGE JAYSON TATUM”, the player himself shared the tweet through his official Instagram account, confirming that Tatum felt snubbed. However, from what Chad Finn highlighted, Steve Kerr may not be as big of a villain as he is being named. Despite Finn’s remarks, the NBA world continues to blame the head coach. While Jayson Tatum continues to ride the same boat, being snubbed may not change his mind about the future.

Jayson Tatum may be open to returning during the 2028 LA Olympics

After a brief period of silence, Jayson Tatum recently sat down for an interview with ‘Boston Globe’ reporter Adam Himmelsbach. After coming out of the Olympics, Jayson Tatum joined Derrick White and Jrue Holiday in becoming the first trio to win the NBA championship and the Olympic Gold Medal in the same year. However, the fact that he accumulated only 71 minutes of gameplay in Paris, while teammates like LeBron James and Stephen Curry accumulated 147 and 140 minutes respectively, did not bode well with him.

“You feel like you deserve to play and the competitor in you wants to play” said Tatum during the interview. “And (Steve Kerr) is the coach for a reason. He makes those decisions.”

The 2024 NBA champion’s dismay raised questions on whether the same would cause him to not enter his name for the 2028 LA Olympics. However, the player put the doubts to bed by stating “It was a tough personal experience on the court, but I’m not going to make any decisions off emotions.” He further added, “If you asked me right now if I’m going to play in 2028, it’s four years from now. I’d have to take time and think about that. So, I’m not going to make any decision based on how this experience was, or how I feel individually.”

For now, Jayson Tatum’s focus will be on the 2024-25 NBA season. After all, he and his squad will be entering the tournament as the defending champions, looking to establish a winning streak that would further elevate the status of the Boston Celtics.

Before you go, remember to check out this crossover between BG12 and Georgia Bulldogs star Silas Demary Jr.