Jayson Tatum joins elite company
Jayson Tatum and his playing time with Team USA became one of the main story lines of the Olympics and while Tatum stayed quiet for the most part the media was anything but. Rumors have swirled about consipracy theories involving Steve Kerr having a personal vendetta against Tatum or it being a Jaylen Brown problem that Nike and Team USA were taking out on Tatum. While I don’t really believe any of the crazy conspiracy theories it was an interesting few weeks for Tatum a perennial all-star, 3x All NBA first team member and NBA Champion riding the bench for a lot more than I’m sure he expected.
However the only goal being on the Olympic team is bringing home the gold medal and Team USA did that in dramatic fashion on Saturday afternoon. Led by Lebron James and the late game heroics of Steph Curry something Celtics fans will be all too familiar with, Team USA took down the home nation of France and secured another gold medal showing the world their dominance yet again in basketball.
For Tatum I’m sure this wasn’t the Olympics he hoped for personally but sacrificing to be a part of a gold medal winning team is part of the Olympic experience. Tatum didn’t play in the teams two games against Serbia but he did get some run in the final against France and made some good defensive plays in his small stints.
While this might not have been what Tatum hoped his Olympic experience would be like this year he joined some elite company. Tatum joined in my opinion and most peoples I’d think the two greatest basketball players of all time Lebron James and Michael Jordan becoming only the third player to win a gold medal while also winning the NBA championship and being All-NBA first team in the same season. Lebron did this in 2012 and Jordan did it in 1992 with the dream team.
So while it may not have happened how Tatum imagined it. An accolade like this is something that can’t be taken away and it continues to cement the incredible resume that Tatum is building at still a fairly young age.
