Curry shares message for Jayson Tatum as he sits on the bench at the Olympics

Celtics

“He was great the way he handled it. He never let it become something that influenced the group.”

Just weeks after reaching the pinnacle of basketball immortality by winning an NBA title, Jayson Tatum found himself stuck on the bench.

Despite playing a key role in Team USA's gold medal win at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tatum spent much of the 2024 Olympics on the outside, watching head coach Steve Kerr's rotations.

Tatum played the second fewest minutes of any player on the Team USA roster this summer, recording zero minutes in two games against Serbia.

Despite adding another gold medal to his resume following Team USA's recent win, Tatum has been open about his recent Olympics experience and the difficulties that came with his limited role.

Speaking to Sports Illustrated earlier this week, Team USA star and Warriors guard Steph Curry shared the message he gave Tatum during the 2024 Olympics.

“I just told him, 'You're a dog.' You know who you are and accept who you are. “When that time comes again, you know at some point you will be asked to help our team. “That was my message,” Curry said of his comments to Tatum. “He was great the way he handled it.

“He never let it become something that influenced the group. You have to give him credit for that because it's not easy. We all expect great things and we all want to be a part of it. He handled a very difficult situation like a professional.”

Last month, Tatum said he was trying to make the most of his Olympics experience.

“Motivation, I guess you could say that more simply. “It was tough in real time,” Tatum said at the Celtics’ media day in September. “I talked to (head coach) Joe (Mazzulla) a lot. Joe was probably the luckiest person in the world that I didn't win the Finals MVP and that I didn't play in two games in the Olympics. So that was strange. But if you know Joe, it makes sense.”

So far in the 2024-25 season, Tatum has been winning his game, taking home Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors on Monday after averaging 33.0 points per game in Boston's first three meetings this year had achieved.

Along with averaging 6.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.7 blocks per game, Tatum is shooting lights out so far this year, sinking 54.7 percent of his shots and 48.6 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc of the archway.

Tatum will get a chance to rejoin Kerr next month when the Warriors play Boston at TD Garden on Nov. 6.

“I think they're going to harass me everywhere,” Kerr told NBA.com when asked about the Celtics fans during that game. “That's fine.”

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Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.

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