Jayson Tatum Sent Blunt NSFW Message to Fans Who Keep Talking About Olympics Benching

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Three months after the 2024 Paris Games, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum is done talking about his Olympics benching.

Tatum getting benched by Team USA coach Steve Kerr this past summer made for plenty of splashy headlines amid the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team’s gold medal-winning run. The All-Star forward fielded yet another question about how people wanted him to react to his benching in the Olympics after the Celtics’ 118-112 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. 

He had a rather blunt reply:

“I mean, that’s part of this job, that’s what I’ve been dealing with my entire career,” Tatum said. “People want me to be louder, people want me to be meaner, whatever. One thing about Jayson is, I’m always going to do what the f--- I want to do.”

“People who react differently, it’s easy to say if they were in my shoes what they would do,” continued Tatum. “I appreciate when it comes from a good place, but like I said I’m always going to react, respond, approach things the way I want to.”

Tatum has clearly moved on, and it seems he wants his fans to do so, too.

The Celtics suffered their second loss of the young NBA season against a reinvigorated Warriors side at TD Garden Wednesday night, with Tatum putting up 32 points sans star teammate Jaylen Brown on the court.

Boston will host the Brooklyn Nets on Friday.


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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.