Jayson Tatum Goes Viral After Embarrassing First Olympic Shot

On Wednesday afternoon, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum and Team USA took on South Sudan in their second official game at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In their first game on Sunday against Nikola Jokic and Serbia, coach Steve Kerr notably did not give Tatum or Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton any playing time. Kerr faced a lot of heat for his decision to not play Tatum, who was an All-NBA first-team player and an NBA champion last season.

Kerr mentioned that this was a decision based on the matchup, and against South Sudan, Kerr decided to start Tatum. He also gave Haliburton some playing time.

But in his first few minutes of Olympic action, Tatum did not help his case.

At the 7:16 mark of the first quarter, Tatum received the ball in the corner and took an open three-pointer, his first official shot at the Olympics. The attempt was way off the mark, hitting the side of the backboard.

NBA fans thought this shot from Tatum was hilarious, given the circumstances, and took to social media to leave their jokes.

Tatum is one of three Celtics players on the Team USA roster, joined by teammates Jrue Holiday and Derrick White.

At the time of this story, Team USA leads South Sudan 55-36 at halftime. Tatum finished the half with zero points on 0-for-2 shooting and added three rebounds and two assists.

Tatum finished the 2023-24 NBA season with an average of 26.9 points on 47.1% shooting. He also averaged 8.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game. Tatum helped lead the Celtics to the NBA's best regular season record (64-18) en route to winning the NBA Finals after going 16-3 in the postseason.

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