Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton were two players during Team USA’s Olympics gold medal run in 2024 who came under the media’s spotlight for not playing as many minutes, despite being the star players on their respective NBA teams.
Over a year later, the duo has finally broken the silence and addressed their feelings from when they found out about their reduced contributions.
Jayson Tatum appeared on ‘The Pivot’ podcast for an in-depth interview where the Celtics star spoke about his time in the Olympics.
“To be honest, that was tough because this is my second time in the Olympics, and we went in 2021, we were in Tokyo, and my experience was totally different. I was the second leading scorer behind KD, and we beat France; we ended up winning a gold medal.”
“So this year, in 2024, I was first team All-NBA, came off a championship. I was on the cover of 2K. Like, I was as high as… I was on top of the world. I just signed the largest contract in NBA history. So, I like I was riding this cloud.”
“And then I get to the Olympics, and it didn’t go how I wanted it. We still won. And you know, I built some relationships, and I gained some great memories from it.”
“But the toughest part was like everybody was like, ‘Yo, like I can’t wait till you play the Warriors. I know you’re going to try to kill him. Like when you see Steve K again.'”
“And it was like, ‘Yeah, but what about how I’m feeling right now?’ Like, f**k what’s going to happen in the future. So I felt like people didn’t take into account how I was trying to process that in real time because I couldn’t process, I couldn’t understand.”
“Being first team All-NBA was, I mean, it’s four other guys in the world and me, and at that time, the four other guys were all European, so it was like I was the only American, and then you get to the Olympics, and it’s like I didn’t play in two of the games.”
“It was hard to process, and that was the toughest part. Like everybody worried about, can’t wait till you play Steve Curry and the Warriors. No, you’ve got to be worried about how I’m feeling right now.”
When asked if Tatum addressed it with Steve Kerr and if he asked him to give him more minutes, Tatum refused, saying he never expressly asked him for it.
“I always bring it back. Like my mom did such a good job of raising me that I always like keep it cool. I always, I’m not going to rock the boat. I’m always going to be a professional.”
“I’m going to show up. Cuz we’re here to win a gold medal, right? If we come up short, then all this sh** was for, we wasted our summer,” said Tatum.
“So, you know, I still was able to like keep that, even though I could disagree or me and the coach not seeing eye to eye or, you know, I’m keeping my distance, I still had the wherewithal of when I get in, I’m going do what I can with the time that they give me and we’re still going to find a way to win,” Tatum concluded.
Meanwhile, Tyrese Haliburton went on the ‘Mind the Game’ podcast with LeBron James and was a lot less stressed than Tatum was in his response. Haliburton recalled the moment he realized during a team meeting that he wouldn’t get significant playing time at the elimination stages of the tournament.
“I think there’s just so many moments and so many things that I learned and obviously, I didn’t get to play a ton and I have a great I have a great story. I’ve never told anybody this story before.
“So we’re at the Olympics. We’re in the back doing film before the Olympics start, and before it starts, it’s like, all right, we’re going to have the team meeting where we acknowledge that all 12 guys cannot play.
“And so Steve starts talking about everybody can’t play and Bron is talking about how you know in the ’04 Olympics I didn’t really play that much and you kind of you got to put your pride aside to you know it’s about bigger than you’ and KD’s over there like ‘at the end of the day we’re 12 All-Stars, everybody’s good you know we’re trying to win right?
“And I’m sitting there and I’m listening I’m like ‘yeah’ and as we start film I’m like ‘but who are they talking about?’ and I’m looking around, I’m like ‘oh he ain’t talking about him, he ain’t talking about him,’ I’m like, ‘Oh, they talking about me!” said Haliburton while recalling the moment he realized he was the one the veterans were indirectly speaking to.
“I was sitting there. I’m like, “Oh, no. This is what it is.” I was like, “Oh.” I was sitting there. I’m watching the film. I can’t even pay attention to the film.”
“I’m like, “Damn.” Like, it’s over. It’s over, man. Oh, I get no PT out here. It’s over. I’m sitting there. I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s over. It’s over for me… It’s cooked.”
Haliburton played 26 minutes combined across three group-stage games (averaging 8:40 per game) in the Olympics. He did not appear in the semi-finals and the gold-medal game for Team USA.
The Pacers’ star ended up averaging 2.7 points and 0.7 assists while shooting 60.0% from the field.
Meanwhile, Tatum played 17:45 on average across his four appearances in the Olympics. But like Haliburton, even he didn’t play against Serbia on both occasions, the group stage and the semi-final matchup. Moreover, he played for only 11 minutes in the gold medal game against France.
Tatum averaged 5.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in those four appearances while shooting 38.1% from the field.
Kerr admitted during the tournament itself that he “felt like an idiot” not playing Jayson Tatum, who had just come off a terrific NBA season and was the only American All-NBA First Team player. He also lauded Haliburton for his peak professionalism.
The Warriors’ head coach has come under public scrutiny recently as well for constantly showing a lack of faith in young talent. While Haliburton seemed to have moved on, Tatum still seemed unsure of how he processed the crucial snub.
Haliburton’s lack of experience justified the benching by Kerr in the crucial games. However, with Tatum, the reasoning remains unclear, as he was arguably the best player in America at the time.
While both these players have nothing personally against Kerr, it will be interesting to see how they perform to respond after missing the entirety of the 2025-26 season due to respective Achilles injuries.
