Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum entered his summer with the U.S. men's basketball team coming off a memorable few months - and then played the second-fewest minutes of anyone on the roster.
The first-team All-NBA forward spoke candidly about his small role with the Olympic team, including being benched entirely in two games.
"I've sacrificed and put a lot into this game and work really, really hard. So in the moment, it is tough," Tatum told reporters including ESPN's Brian Windhorst after his squad took home the gold medal with a 98-87 victory over France on Saturday.
"It's definitely challenging and humbling at the same time," added Tatum.
Tatum is months removed from winning his first career NBA championship and was recently handed the largest contract in league history: a five-year, $314-million maximum extension.
Still, with so many legendary wings on the USA roster and only 40 minutes allocated per game, Tatum was often the odd man out. His lesser-used Celtics teammates Jrue Holiday and Derrick White both saw more minutes.
For his part, Tatum also struggled in Paris. He had the team's worst field-goal percentage at 38.1%, and went 0-for-16 on jump shots across the Olympics and exhibition contests, according to The Volume's Jason Timpf, per Synergy Sports.
Despite being passed over for minutes on the world's biggest athletic stage, the now-two-time gold medalist isn't ready to rule out a return to Team USA in the 2028 Olympic Games taking place in Los Angeles.
"It was a tough personal experience on the court, but I'm not going to make any decision off emotions," Tatum said, per Windhorst. "If you asked me right now if I was going to play in 2028 - it is four years from now and I (would have) to take time and think about that. So I'm not going to make any decision based off how this experience was or how I felt individually."
