Jayson Tatum reacts to attitude towards Olympic revenge with insults

BOSTON – Boston Celtics fans were certainly thinking about Payback when they greeted Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr with a loud chorus of boos on Wednesday.

Celtics star Jayson Tatum, who was the injured party in this situation after Kerr benched him twice in the Olympics, didn't feel the same way.

“It wasn't about me,” Tatum said of the Olympic drama between him and Kerr after Boston's 118-112 loss to the Warriors at TD Garden. “Just another Wednesday. Another game, another opportunity to come in and try to be the best player I can be and another day where I can just try to get a win.”

Tatum wouldn't apologize for feeling that way either. Fans wanted to see him give Kerr a death stare after he hit one of his five 3-pointers in the game, or otherwise show off the respected coach after he shot a game-high 32 on 10-for-20 shooting Taking points meant waiting for things that never came.

Tatum has put his “challenging” Olympic experiences in the past, even if Celtics fans haven’t done so yet.

“It’s part of this job. This is what I've dealt with my entire career. People want me to be louder, people want me to be meaner, whatever,” Tatum said. “One thing about Jayson is that I will always do what I want to do and approach things the way I want to approach them, which I think is sincere to who I am as a person.”

Not giving in to what other people wanted is a skill Tatum has acquired in his NBA career, like his low-key 3-pointer. After the Olympics debacle, many people reached out to Tatum and tried to give him advice on how to handle the situation.

But Tatum, as he always will, went his own way.

“I mean, excuse my language, you just learn not to give a (expletive),” Tatum said. “I feel comfortable in my skin. I am happy with the things I have achieved. I know who I am. I feel comfortable making my own decisions the way I want to make them and doing things the way I want. When you're younger, you may be very consumed or anxious about pleasing people you don't know, or something similar. If I do things the way I want to do them, I can live with the outcome of any situation. This is where I’m at in my life.”