Celtics' Jayson Tatum 'Didn't Have Any Good Days' with 2024 Olympic Team: Report

Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum had a difficult time during the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

There's no doubt that the Boston Celtics All-Star power forward Jayson Tatum is a frontrunner for NBA MVP this season.

So far, Tatum is averaging 29.9 points, 8.1 total rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.4 steals per game across the first 15 games of the season. This is easily helping him keep pace with other MVP favorites like Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

While Tatum has more than proven his superstar status, there was a time before this season began when fans and experts questioned whether he was the guy in Boston.

This was largely because of two reasons: he was not named the Finals MVP when the Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks for the NBA Championship and Olympics head coach Steve Kerr benched him against Jokic and Team Serbia.

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According to Kerr, this was largely because of the overall matchup against Serbia. And given the sheer amount of star power on Team USA, that was understandable. Still, it appears this had an affect on the five-time All-Star.

"League sources say the five-time All-Star didn't have any truly good days on the court — in practice or games — in his entire time leading up to the gold-medal win over France," Sam Amick of The Athletic reported.

Still, Tatum had a good performance overall at the 2024 Tokyo Olympics, averaging 20.5 minutes, 15.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game across six games while shooting 49.3 percent from the field and 44.7 percent from the 3-point line.

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While all the media chatter may have had a mental and emotional effect on Tatum, he did not let it get in the way of his overall goal: getting a gold medal.

“It was a lot,” Tatum said. "In the age of social media, you see everything. You see all the tweets and the people on the podcasts and people on TV giving 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 (age) 3 at the YMCA, and I’ve never not played, so it was different and it was challenging.”

“I wasn’t moping around. I didn’t have an attitude. I wasn’t angry at the world. I stayed ready and did what was asked of me and I won a gold medal, right?”

He did. And now, Tatum is easily proving all the haters wrong.

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