Jayson Tatum has had a lot of ups and downs this year. From winning a championship to not participating enough at the Paris Olympics to crushing the Knicks on the opening night of the 2024-25 NBA season. He’s done it all. And it seems as if the two DND-CDs (did not play due to coach’s decision) he received at Steve Kerr’s hands in Paris have had a deep impact on his performance. At least Stephen A. Smith believes it has Steve Kerr‘s fingerprints all over it. The senior reporter drew lines between Kerr’s past coaching decisions in Paris and the hooper’s recent transformation, piecing it together like a gripping web series.

In a rather honest way, the analyst took a sharp stance at coach Kerr. He said, “What Steve Kerr did to Jayson Tatum in the Olympics is egregious. You don’t go up to a first-team All-NBA player over the last three years who just won a championship a month earlier who spent the year averaging 27 a game and walk up to him before a game and say, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to find minutes for you’.” 

Even as Kerr coached the team to grab Gold medals, he got major flak for his decisions regarding Tatum. Under his guidance, Tatum was either not playing at all, or playing sparingly in a couple of games throughout. It was not just a shock for fans and teammates, but also to Draymond Green and Tatum’s mother. His explanation for it all: “It’s just hard to play 11 people, even in an NBA game… It’s a math problem more than anything.”

Now that Tatum came back, renewed and rejuvenated, he single-handedly crushed the Knicks’ hopes on the first night itself. He dropped 37 points on 14-of-18 shooting from the field and an eye-popping 8 of 11 from 3-pointer range. He also had four rebounds and 10 assists in the Celtics’ opening night 132-109 win at TD Garden.

And it seems that many are standing beside JT.

Everyone gathering support for Jayson Tatum

Steve Kerr’s decision from the 2024 Paris Olympics continues to be a hot topic of debate in the basketball community. Despite coming off as a fresh NBA champion, JT found himself benched. Many called it unfair. Many anticipated a massive comeback.

‘Wait till the NBA returns!’ was a common theme among the fan forums.

And it wasn’t just the fans. It is the Celtics too, who were pretty cryptic with their messaging. More and more people are hinting at the bigger picture, suggesting a “revenge tour“. JT even reposted a screenshot of a tweet a couple of months ago on his Instagram stories, that Vince Staples originally posted, writing, “We will avenge Jayson Tatum”. 

Among all of this was also Jaylen Brown, who spoke about reaching out to Tatum on the Stephen A. Show, saying, “Jayson, I think he handled it extremely well. That just says a lot about JT’s character. But I know he was pissed, for sure. I remember texting him and being like, ‘I’m mad for you.'”

Now, over the summer break, the 28-year-old was one of the most hardworking hoopers in literally every video that we all saw. He even modified his movements for agility and the timing of launching the 3-pointers. All of his hard work, and his frustration probably amounted to the kind of “one-man-show” he displayed at TD Garden on opening day.