Garnett spoke positively about Tatum’s benching.
Kevin Garnett spoke about the Paris 2024 Olympics and Jayson Tatum on Sunday (Feb. 17).
Team USA’s victory at the Paris Olympics brought many reactions. With the dream combination of LeBron James-Kevin Durant-Stephen Curry, the U.S. had some tough games against Serbia and France, 카지노 커뮤니티 but they managed to defend their gold medal.
Rather than sticking with the same rotation for the Olympics, head coach Steve Kerr changed the lineup depending on the opponent. Since the games were 40 minutes instead of 48 minutes like in the NBA, he had to use a narrower range of players, and sometimes even sit some players altogether.
Jayson Tatum is the ace of the Boston Celtics, who had a dominant run last season and won the NBA championship. For the third year in a row, he was named to the All-NBA First Team, the top five players in the league.
At the Olympics, Tatum averaged 5.3 points and 5.3 rebounds, stats that are unthinkable in the NBA, and missed two games. Tatum’s absence in both games against Serbia was particularly controversial, as he didn’t play a single minute in the quarterfinals.
While some fans were unhappy with Tatum spending so much time on the bench, Garnett, a championship-winning legend in Boston, disagreed. He saw the problem from a different perspective.
Garnett pointed to Tatum’s fatigue. Players on championship teams have less time to rest than normal as they play through the season until mid-June, and Tatum’s time off was further reduced by playing in the Olympics. It’s not long until training camp starts.
“When you win a championship, you get a shortened offseason, while others get four to five months off,” Garnett said. Players on championship teams usually only have two to two-and-a-half months off, and then they go right back to preparing for the season. Looking back, Tatum only had about two weeks off after the Finals and then had to go to training camp for Team USA. I can only imagine how hard that is,” said Tatum.
“I’m glad Team USA didn’t need him as much, and I’m glad he was able to get more rest.”
Tatum himself was unfazed by his small role in the Olympics. In his usual mature fashion, he even left the door open for a return to the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
“I’m going to take this experience and learn from it,” Tatum said. It’s definitely challenging and humbling at the same time. It’s been a tough experience for me personally on the court, but I’m not going to make decisions based on emotion. If you’re asking me if I’m going to the 2028 Olympics, that’s four years away, and I’m going to have to take some time to think about it. I’m not going to make a rash decision based on how this experience was.”
Boston opens the 2024-2025 season on Oct. 23 against New York. Tatum will take a short break before heading into the season with a full training camp and preseason schedule.