‘Humiliating experience:’ Tatum candidly discusses being benched by Team USA originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Jayson Tatum was the best player on the NBA’s best team this season. And yet he was benched Sunday for Team USA’s first game at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Tatum was a healthy leaver in Team USA’s 110-84 group-stage win over Serbia, with head coach Steve Kerr simply explaining that he “went with the (lineup) combinations that made sense.” The Boston Celtics star didn’t say much about his surprise benching after the game, but after finally seeing playing time in Wednesday’s win over South Sudan, Tatum was a little more candid.
“Definitely a humbling experience, right?” Tatum said after Wednesday’s game in Lille, France, about not playing on Sunday, via Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “Win a championship, new contract, cover of 2K, and then you sit out the whole game. Cover of Sports Illustrated. So it was definitely a humbling experience.”
Tatum’s DNP-CD may have been the low point in a season full of highlights for the three-time First-Team All-NBA selection, who has already signed a supermax contract extension and graced the covers of the video game NBA 2K25 and Sports Illustrated while still mulling his NBA championship.
But if Tatum was upset about not playing on Sunday, he claims he’s gotten over it.
“It’s a unique situation and it’s not about any individual player,” Tatum said. “The competitor in you wants to play, that’s for sure. But I’m not here to make a story, to make it about me. We won.
“I was just happy to get out there and play again (Wednesday). There’s been a lot of talk the last few days, but I was in a good mood, I had a good attitude about it. I don’t hold any grudges or anything.”
Tatum got the start against South Sudan but wasn’t exactly spectacular, contributing just four points on 2 of 4 shooting in 17 minutes. Big man Joel Embiid was a DNP in the game — more evidence that All-Stars accustomed to playing a lot of minutes will have to make playing time sacrifices on the 12-man roster.
While Tatum certainly falls into that category, his two Celtics teammates on Team USA — Jrue Holiday and Derrick White — have seen plenty of runs, with White contributing 10 points in a strong all-around performance on Wednesday. Tatum said he’s enjoying seeing Holiday and White step up to key roles.
“You can take a lot out of it,” Tatum said. “You can be frustrated that you want to play as a competitor, but maybe you have some empathy for some of the guys on my (Celtics) team that don’t always play or play spot minutes. So, learning experience to look at it from that perspective and just move on from it.”
Team USA returns to action on Saturday against Puerto Rico in the final match of the group stage. Tip-off is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. (local time) on NBC.
