NBA Rumors: Jayson Tatum motivated to win MVP with Celtics after Olympic benching | News, scores, highlights, stats & rumors

Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum has his ‘MVP’ goals in mind and he’s using his bench seat at the 2024 Summer Olympics as motivation to pursue that honor.

Stadium and The Athletic’s Shams Charania provided further insight into the matter during a Pat McAfee Show appearance on Wednesday (4:35 point).

“Jayson Tatum, he told people all over the world about American basketball—and this was something that people around the US basketball team heard—He really got that motivation from what happened at the Olympics. He has MVP goals in his head, whether that’s this year. But that’s all in his head as far as what he can accomplish in this league. You look at everything he’s done at such a young age, winning a championship. That’s the next step for him, to climb to that MVP level.”

Tatum was benched for two of Team USA’s six games en route to a gold medal in Paris by coach’s decision. He didn’t perform particularly well on the court, scoring 5.3 points on 38.1 percent shooting in 17.7 minutes per game.

It was a tough blow for Tatum, as he had helped the Celtics to 80 wins (including playoffs) and the team’s 18th NBA championship in June.

“It was a lot. In the age of social media, you see everything,” Tatum recently told Jared Weiss of The Athletic in August of last year. “You see all the tweets and the people on the podcasts and the people on TV giving their opinions on whether they thought it was a good decision or an outrageous decision or whatever.

“Of course I wanted to contribute more, and I’ve never been in (this) situation before. I started playing basketball when I was (3 years old) at the YMCA, and I’ve never not played, so it was different and challenging.”

Tatum also spoke about the benchwarmers during the Olympics during the team’s media day.

“Did I need any extra motivation going into the season? No, I’m not going to give credit to anyone in particular for motivating me going into the season,” Tatum said (h/t ESPN’s Tim Bontemps).

“It was a unique circumstance, something I’ve never experienced before in my playing career. But I believe that everything happens for a reason. I just came from a championship, the highest, a cover of 2K, a new contract, and that happened. Whatever the reason is, I haven’t figured it out yet. But I believe that everything happens for a reason.”

As for his MVP goal, that may be difficult to achieve given the elite talent and competition he’ll face, but Tatum has finished in the top six of the NBA MVP voting each of the past three years, including fourth in 2022-23.

Only two other players (two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic) can say the same. Tatum has also made the All-NBA First Team the last three years.

The Celtics will attempt to defend their title, starting on October 22 against the New York Knicks.