PARIS — Jayson Tatum stated his restricted function taking part in for Group USA this summer time is not going to have an effect on his resolution to play for the nationwide workforce sooner or later.
Tatum didn’t play in two of the six video games within the Olympics, together with the semifinal victory over Serbia on Thursday. He then got here off the bench within the first quarter and performed 11 minutes in Group USA’s victory within the gold medal recreation Saturday towards France, scoring two factors with three rebounds.
“It was a troublesome private expertise on the courtroom, however I am not going to make any resolution off feelings,” Tatum stated. “If you happen to requested me proper now if I used to be going to play in 2028 — it’s 4 years from now and I [would have] to take time and take into consideration that. So I am not going to make any resolution based mostly off how this expertise was or how I felt individually.”
Group USA coach Steve Kerr stated repeatedly his selection to not play Tatum was not based mostly on efficiency however matchups. Tatum missed each video games towards Serbia, the place Kerr usually performed an even bigger lineup. He additionally was typically taking part in behind LeBron James and Kevin Durant, who performed on the second unit for the primary 5 video games till beginning within the closing.
Kerr sat starter Joel Embiid for a recreation towards a smaller South Sudan. He sat Derrick White through the gold medal recreation. Tyrese Haliburton did not play in three video games. Tatum stated a number of instances after the sport that he was thrilled with profitable his second gold medal and did not need his scenario to remove from the workforce’s success.
However he additionally acknowledged, as a three-time All-NBA participant and not too long ago topped NBA champion, he was listening to quite a bit about it from residence.
“Lots of people textual content me and reached out and stated ‘Be sure that this fuels you,’ which I recognize. There’s lots of people that care about me,” Tatum stated. “I feel the powerful half is sure, you need to use issues to gas you, however I am nonetheless human.
“…A part of being within the second, I’ve sacrificed and put quite a bit into this recreation and work actually, actually laborious. So within the second it’s powerful. You are not essentially frightened about fueling me for November or [whenever] the season is, however like I stated, it is one thing I am going to remove from this and be taught from this expertise. It is positively difficult and humbling on the identical time.”