Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum is home from the Paris Olympics and is hard at work preparing for the upcoming NBA season, which is set to begin in late October.
After winning his first NBA title earlier this summer, Tatum suited up for Team USA in an experience in Paris that certainly wasn’t what he expected.
“one of the things with so much talk and debate,” Tatum told Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “There was a time he asked him self if he was a superstar or not?’ for him it felt it was big debate going on ‘Is he championship ready now?’ Then it’s like, ‘How could he not get in the Olympics?’ I’m like, I just won a championship, it’s the summertime, it might be nice to have a little break where you don’t turn on ESPN and they’re talking about you. But I guess this is part of it, and that may be the level I’ve reached now in my career.”
Tatum knows what kind of player he is and the media attention and coverage that comes along with it. Conversations about Tatum have only gets attention as people talks about the issue as he move into a different class of player now that he held an NBA title.
“It was a lot,” Tatum said of the coverage of his benching. “In the age of social media, you see everything. seeing all tweets and the people on the podcasts and people on TV expressing their opinion on whether they thought it was a good decision or it was an outrageous decision or whatever. Obviously, I wanted to contribute more, and I’ve never been in [this] situation. I started playing basketball at 3 at the YMCA, and I’ve never not played, so it was different and it was challenging.”
Tatum will certainly be in the headlines again when the new NBA season begins, and will have to deal with all the good [and sometimes bad] that comes along with it.
His poor three-point shooting was much-maligned throughout the NBA Finals after Tatum shot just a shade over 28% from deep. Additionally, Tatum did not make a jump shot during the Olympics.
Tatum, who has metamorphosed into a world class player for the Celtics, is constantly being debated in the media for the its limit in his game. He doesn’t have many, but his stretches of poor shooting have turned into a talking point.
He will try to reverse the conversation when the new season begins in October.
