Before the game on Wednesday, Golden State coach Steve Kerr was reminded by Boston’s fans that they weren’t happy with his decision on Jayson Tatum’s playing time during the Paris Olympics.
When the Warriors’ starting lineup was introduced at TD Garden, Kerr was met with loud boos from the crowd. Tatum scored 32 points in Boston’s 118-112 loss to Golden State.
Tatum said the Olympics weren’t on his mind during the game. “It was just another Wednesday, another game, another opportunity to be the best player I can be,” he said. “Another day to try and get a win.”
He mentioned before that after the Olympics, many people had opinions on how he should feel about the situation, but he entered the game on Wednesday focused on playing and not reacting to Kerr or the boos.
“As I’ve gotten older, listening to others doesn’t change what I do,” Tatum explained. “That’s part of this job. People are going to be loud, people are going to be mean, whatever. I’m going to approach things how I want to approach them, what I feel is sincere and who I am as a person.”
Tatum, who won the gold medal with teammates Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, didn’t play in either game against Serbia during the Olympics.
Kerr, asked if he had any regrets about the Olympics, said, “I don’t give it a whole lot of thought other than I didn’t enjoy not playing Jayson against Serbia, not playing Joel (Embiid) against South Sudan.
Those are not fun decisions, but our guys were all amazing. They committed to each other, they committed to winning the gold medal. They brought the gold home for their country.”
Kerr also seemed to expect the boos, joking when asked about the loudest boos he’s ever received: “I don’t think anybody actually cared about me to boo me.”
Tatum’s first basket came late in the opening quarter when he hit a jumper in front of the Warriors’ bench and was fouled. This brought loud cheers from the crowd. He scored 17 points in the third quarter, helping the Celtics erase most of an 11-point deficit from halftime.
Before the game, Kerr had mentioned that some fans might cheer him too. “We’ll see how it goes tonight. I’m sure a lot of Celtics fans are going to cheer me for being part of Team USA, winning a gold medal for the country,” Kerr said.
“I’m a patriotic American. I love my country. Three Celtics on the team, who won a world championship, and two months later won a gold medal. Pretty incredible stuff.”
However, if any cheers did come, they were drowned out by the loud boos from the crowd.
