Celtics' Jayson Tatum drops NSFW rant amid Olympic benching, Warriors loss

It has been a dream year for Jayson Tatum. He became one of the few players in history to win an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year. And yet, there was so much disappointment surrounding the Boston Celtics star even as he accomplished both of those feats. He took a bit of a backseat in the playoffs, with Jaylen Brown winning Finals MVP honors, and then for Team USA, he somehow ended up being their eleventh man — joining Tyrese Haliburton outside of the rotation.

Tatum, however, has clearly had enough of the discourse surrounding his lackluster stint for Team USA and how it relates to his electric start to the 2024-25 season. He fired off an NSFW rant following the Celtics' 118-112 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night, with Tatum looking to emphasize that he's going to respond however he wants — outside noise be damned.

“It's part of this job, what I've been dealing with my entire career. People want me to be louder, people want me to be meaner, whatever. One thing about Jayson is — I’m always going to do what the fuck I want to do,” Tatum said in his postgame presser, via Noa Dalzell of SB Nation's Celtics Blog. “[I'll] approach things how I want to approach in what I feel is sincere to who I am as a person.”

Jayson Tatum was asked about how people wanted him to respond to the Olympics benching:

“People want me to be louder, people want me to be meaner, whatever. One thing about Jayson is — I’m always going to do what the fuck I want to do.” pic.twitter.com/AWc8mLVsMq

— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) November 7, 2024

The Celtics star, however, understands where the clamor for him to elevate his game in light of a disappointing summer is coming from. Regardless, despite the pressure to react a certain way, Tatum prefers to remain unabashedly himself.

“We react differently. It's easy to say, if they were in my shoes, what they would do. I appreciate when it comes from a good place but like I said, I'm always going to react, respond, approach things the way I want to,” Tatum added.

Whoever Tatum is now is clearly good enough, and he doesn't have to overhaul who he is just to fit certain expectations. The Celtics clearly love Tatum the way he is, and they would love nothing more than for him to keep being himself.

Jayson Tatum, Celtics falter late against the Warriors

In the third quarter of the Celtics' loss to the Warriors, they came storming back, thanks in large part to Jayson Tatum and Derrick White's efforts. Both of them were on point for most of the night, with the two combining for 58 points on 12 three-pointers only for them to lose steam in the end.

The silver lining to this is that the Celtics remain very hard to beat even though they were without Jaylen Brown on the night. Brown has been dealing with a hip injury, and for Boston to nearly protect homecourt despite this big of an absence shows how many positive contributors they have on the roster.

The Celtics, however, should have a golden opportunity to get back to winning ways when they take on the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night at 7:30 PM E.T.