The Boston Celtics look good value to defend their title, in large part to the play of Jayson Tatum.
A consensus top-five player in the league who is coming off his first NBA championship and Olympic gold medal over the summer, the Celtics star has positioned his squad to a 16-4 start, good for second in the East.
However, the last couple of months weren’t as smooth sailing for Tatum as everyone would like to believe.
During the Olympics, Tatum received very little to no playing time throughout Team USA’s run to the gold.
But Celtics teammate and Team USA teammate Jrue Holiday revealed on the Podcast P with Paul George that Tatum could not have handled his situation any better.
“JT, the way he handled it, he handled it like a professional,” Holiday said.
“He never brought it in the locker room, he never brought it to us like, yeah, we talked about it and all that, but it was never like it was an issue.”
Holiday sang Tatum’s maturity and professionalism, while also being puzzled at the same time as to why Team USA’s head coach, Steve Kerr, chose to restrict Tatum’s playing time.
“Was it weird? Yeah, it’s Jayson Tatum,” Holiday said.
“What do you mean? He’s a top five player in the league, just won a championship, one of the best players in the playoffs and in the Finals.
“When it was happening, you felt for him. You could see that he was upset, he wanted to play.
“But he wasn’t pouting, I can tell you that. He would get in the gym. It’s not like he stopped working.
“He was the one seriously trying to be like, all right, well, I’m gonna stay ready whenever my numbers called.”
George was also impressed with how Tatum handled the whole situation.
“I did think he handled that amazingly,” George said. “He handled it like a professional. Shoutout JT, that was dope.”
Not often does a player coming off a championship run have to take a backseat at the Olympics.
But that is exactly what Tatum did, as the team was centered on the presumed last run for LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.
It was the proverbial swan song for the big three and their Team USA careers.
They didn’t lose a single game, while all three superstars had their individual moments, most notably Curry in the semifinals against Serbia, and then again in the gold medal game against France.
Tatum’s limited playing time in Paris clearly hasn’t impacted his start to the season as he is currently averaging 28.9 points per game to go along with 8.5 rebounds and 5.7 assists.
In other words, he’s once again playing at an MVP-level.
As Holiday noted, Tatum handled it all with class, and in turn, it looks as though it has fueled him to begin the season.
That’s a scary sign for the rest of the league.
