After winning his first NBA title, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum followed it up with a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. While it was a big win for Tatum, who also signed a five-year, $315 million contract extension this summer, the Olympics didn’t go as planned.
Tatum, who played the second-fewest minutes on Team USA at the Olympics, did not play at all on two occasions, including the semifinal game against Paris, when Steve Kerr shortened his rotation after giving Tatum extra minutes in previous games.
Reacting to this on the latest episode of his 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Denver Nuggets legend Carmelo Anthony spoke about the Tatum situation and how he handled it.
“They wanted him to do what Devin Booker did,” Anthony said of Tatum. “He’s got to be a four-man, space the floor, play some defense, and that’s it. But if you’re not told what your role is and you’re just told to figure it out, right now, if I’m in the game, I’m overthinking it. We’re human, too. Basketball players are human, athletes are human.”
Anthony said he understood the difficult situation Kerr was facing, but he would have preferred Tatum’s situation to be handled differently. That said, Anthony praised Tatum for how he handled the situation.
“I want these young athletes to know that this is the reality here,” Anthony said. “… This man has one of the best four-, five-year resumes of any player in any sport. What he went through, I want everybody to see that it hurts to live it on national television around the world… He was resilient. He stood there and the world knows he was mad.”
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