(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
One of the biggest subplots of Team USA’s gold medal journey in the 2024 Olympics was new NBA champion Jayson Tatum’s sporadic, and often nonexistent playing time.
While we haven’t really heard anything from Tatum himself about the situation, the people around him have not held their tongues, and his father recently expressed his displeasure with his son’s playing time.
NBACentral shared a recent quote from Tatum’s father, who said “As a coach, I would have no reservations of playing him. As a coach, I would find a way to play him. Why hasn’t he played? I don’t see it.”
Justin Tatum says he would’ve found a way to give Jayson Tatum more minutes during the Olympics
“As a coach, I would have no reservations of playing him. As a coach I would find a way to play him. Why hasn’t he played? I don’t see it.”
(Via @ScoopB ) pic.twitter.com/QvMlPQecmb
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 14, 2024
While Tatum’s father is certainly biased and is simply doing his job as a father in publicly supporting his son, many fans were perplexed as to why Tatum was unable to see the court more often during Team USA’s run.
The reality of the situation is that the reason why probably isn’t very complicated.
Tatum was competing for minutes with Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards, and Anthony Davis, all of whom appeared to adapt to the international style of play better than Tatum did.
Tatum played in five of Team USA’s seven games including 11 minutes in the gold medal game against France, where he put up two points on 1-of-3 shooting.
He also shot just 38 percent in Paris and didn’t make a three-pointer, so it’s not as if his play justified Steve Kerr giving him more minutes.
In the 2020 Olympics, Tatum was the team’s second-leading scorer at 15.2 points per game, and coming off an NBA title, it makes sense that many wanted him to play more.
Someone was always going to be the odd man out in Kerr’s rotation, and this time it just so happened to be Tatum.
The post Jayson Tatum’s Dad Was Not Happy With Son’s Minutes In Olympics appeared first on The Cold Wire.