2020 Olympics

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/2020-olympics-bradley-beal-details-221146377.html



2020 Olympics: Bradley Beal details 'special relationship' with Jayson Tatum


Nick Goss
Wed, July 7, 2021, 3:11 PM



Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum have been friends since they were kids in St. Louis, and it's easy to see how thrilled they are about playing alongside each other at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo later this month.

"We're both excited. For one, we grew up five minutes from each other. To have two guys from the same high school on the same team, I don't know if that's ever happened in USA Basketball," Beal said during a Team USA press conference Wednesday.

"We're excited about it. Even growing up we've never been on the same team, ever. This is definitely exciting for both of us. I'm happy about his growth (as a player). I'm excited to see him on global stage as well as myself. And everybody -- we have a really good team. But Jayson and I have a special relationship, and I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be exciting. The ultimate thing is getting that gold medal."

Celtics on NBC Sports Boston
@NBCSCeltics
"Jayson and I have a special relationship and I'm looking forward to it."

Bradley Beal says he and childhood friend, Jayson Tatum can't wait to play together for the first time ever as members of Team USA basketball.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1412888792126480392


The friendship between Tatum and Beal has been well-documented for a while, and their bond will continue to be a story as long as Beal's future with the Wizards' is uncertain.

Beal is entering the final year of his contract, and there's been rumors and speculation over the last few years about the potential of him joining Tatum on the Celtics.

The Olympics is a great place for players to recruit each other, and when asked during Wednesday's presser about recruiting, Beal admitted there could be a bunch of that talk over the next couple weeks.

Brian Robb
@BrianTRobb
Bradley Beal on how much talk there will be among guys with Team USA about teaming up in future: "I don’t know. Probably a lot."
2:23 PM · Jul 7, 2021


The United States is the overwhelming favorite to win its fourth consecutive gold medal in Olympic men's basketball. Beal and Tatum should be key contributors in that quest.


Bob
MY NOTE: Bring in a decent, veteran point guard, develop Pritchard (and maybe Madar, let's see how he looks first) and then use Al Horford's ending contract to sign Beal. Can you imagine? Tatum, Brown and Beal?! Is that enough firepower for you?


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Bradley Beal has a player option for 2022-23 season. If he declines it then we will need a sign & trade that is difficult because of hard cap. He will have to pull a Chris Paul and leverage picking up the option to facilitate a trade to the desired destination.

The idea definitely makes me very excited.

https://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/offseason-071121-tatum-starts-strong-team-usa-exhibition-opener






Tatum Starts Strong in Team USA’s Exhibition Opener



By Taylor Snow | @taylorcsnow
Celtics.com
July 10, 2021



Jayson Tatum got his first taste of action with the United States Men’s Basketball Olympic team Saturday night and turned out to be one of its few bright spots during an exhibition upset defeat to Nigeria.

The Celtics wing served as Team USA’s primary source of offense throughout the majority of the contest, as he tallied 15 points and a game-high-tying seven rebounds, while shooting 4-of-7 from the field, 2-of-3 from 3-point range, and a perfect 5-of-5 from the free-throw line. But despite the efforts of its youngest member, Team USA came up short, 90-87, in its first of five exhibition matchups ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

Tatum earned a spot in the starting lineup alongside Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, and Bam Adebayo. He proved right away that he belonged among such a star-studded group, as he knocked down a pair of 3-pointers during the opening frame, including a transition trey at the end of the frame which gave USA a 23-22 lead.

Tatum added to his scoring in the second quarter with an and-one lay-up and three free-throw makes, giving him a team-high 11 points at the break. However, USA could not sustain its 43-41 halftime lead, largely due to Nigeria’s 20-of-42 shooting effort from 3-point range, which included a 6-of-8 effort from the game’s leading scorer, Gabe Vincent (21 points).

Nigeria saw its lead expand to as many as eight points during the closing minutes, though Durant was able to keep USA in the game by scoring eight of his team-high 17 points during the final minute-plus of regulation.

It was a stunning defeat for Team USA, which was favored by 30 points, but as Tatum noted, it was the first time that many of these guys have played in a game together, and following just four days of preparation.

“We’re just trying to get a feel for the game, for each other,” he said during a halftime interview with NBC Sports. “We’re trying to get in a flow, get in shape, and so we’re trying to figure a lot of things out.”

Tatum also believes that a loss like this can help in the long run, as he said after the game, “We’re going to learn a lot from film, and just regroup, stay positive.”

One piece of intel that he and his teammates will take away from the film is that they will need to move the ball better and not settle for so many isolation plays moving forward.

“We’ve got a lot of great isolation players, and in this deal, we’re going to have to play together and figure out what works best with certain guys out there and getting other guys easy shots instead of for ourselves,” Tatum said.

Obviously, it wasn’t an ideal start for the gold-medal favorites, but getting a wake-up call out of the way early could be a blessing in disguise.

In fact, while sitting next to Tatum at a podium post-game, head coach Gregg Popovich went so far as to say, “In a way, I’m kind of glad it happened. That loss means nothing if we don’t learn from it, but it could be the most important thing in this tournament for us, to learn lessons from this and see what we did to move on. Because it’s a great group of guys, high-character, and we’ll figure it out.”

Tatum and the rest of the group will have four more exhibition games to figure it out before heading to Tokyo, with their next game falling Monday night against Australia.


Bob


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Hi,
Here's the schedule for exhibition games: https://www.usab.com/news-events/events/calendar.aspx


AK

Marc D'Amico @celtics
about 1 hour ago
JT vs Coach U @usabasketball

Movie camera
@usabasketball

https://twitter.com/i/status/1416405042828038147


Bob


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