by Henry Liao

Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum can wait for the 2028 LA Olympics.

So long as the US team wins – as it did in Paris – then that alone should be fine for him – one of the few players to win the NBA crown and Olympic gold in the same year, identical to Boston Celtics mate Jrue Holiday and Derrick White.

First of all, his nemesis (?) coach Steve Kerr won’t be there anymore. And the US Olympic coach will turn out to be Joe (Bazooka) Mazzulla.

Second, his young age is an advantage. Time can wait a bit. The heavy minutes will come. I expect him to be the Leader of the Band in 2028. No more the Avengers’ elder statesmen like LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant to eat all the minutes.

If it serves as motivation for Tatum to prove Kerr wrong in his two DNPs in Paris by way of shooting for the stars in the NBA in the Boston’s back-to-back championship quest in 2024-25, I wish him all the best, (even though I am a certified dyed-in-the-wool Lakers fan).

I remember another Celtics star. Jaylen Brown, the 2024 NBA Finals MVP who could not crack the original 12-man roster and, worse, was not even added as a replacement for Kawhi Leonard (who himself was sandbagged by Grant Hill and USA Basketball) in favor of another Celtic Derrick White.

His time will come, too.

I remember how LeBron played miniscule minutes (11.4 minutes in eight games) during the 2004 Athens Olympics – despite capturing the NBA Rookie of the Year award just months earlier. How he looked so pitiful on the bench under the whims of coach Larry Brown, so much so he often wondered if the world was coming to an end.

With a 5-3 overall record, having lost to Puerto Rico by 19, 91-73!! and Lithuania in the preliminary round that consisted of six teams each in two groupings, and to eventual gold medalist Argentina in the semifinals, the Americans settled for the bronze. It was the first (and only) time that the Yanks failed to secure a gold since USA Basketball started sending NBA players to the Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona.

At the time, LeBron was 19 years, seven months and three days old. He was the youngest US male basketball player since Spencer Haywood (19 years, five months and 26 days old) during the 1968 Mexico Olympics when most of the top college stars like Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. (later taking on his Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the summer of 1971 after winning the NBA title with the Milwaukee Bucks) boycotted the Games due to the US-Vietnam war.

James averaged only 5.4 points (shooting 19-for-32 (..594) from the field), 1.0 rebound and 1.6 assists in eight appearances in the Athens games with no starts.

But look where LeBron is now, averaging 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists in a perfect 6-0 finish, including a triple-double in the come-from-behind 95-91 victory over eventual bronze medalist Serbia in a semifinal game for the Americans’ fifth consecutive gold medal.. (The Serbians beat the Germans, 93-83. in the bronze-medal contest in a rematch of the 2023 FIBA World Cup finals in Manila.)

Then there’s the electrifying Catlin Clark and, to an extent, Angel Reese, a pair of spectacular WNBA rookies this season who were not included on the US Olympic women’s team for Paris and had to give way to 42-year-old Diana Taurasi, who was in her last hurrah if not for what she has done for women’s basketball in the past.

Taurasi did not play in the gold medal game. a 67-66 US win over host France for its eighth straight gold medal that kept its 61-game winning streak intact. (Australia beat Belgium for the bronze).

No complaints from Taurasi. Just a sweet swan song for her record-breaking 6-for-6 record in Olympic gold-medal games.

Time can wait. In 2028, expect the Clark and Reese to be the co-Leader of the Band as well, along with A’ja Wilson, the tournament MVP on the women’s side after averaging 18.7 points and 10.2 assists in six games.

Just my one-centavo take.