Jayson Tatum 'motivated' for another Celtics title run - ESPN

BOSTON — Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum joked that his coach, Joe Mazzulla, probably sees a chance to motivate him in the disappointments of an overwhelmingly positive year that included an NBA title and a gold medal.

Even with the success, Tatum didn't win NBA Finals MVP and was a healthy scratch in two games as part of Team USA's run at the Paris Olympics.

«Motivation? I guess you could say that, if you want to simplify it,» Tatum said Tuesday morning here at the team's practice facility as part of media day, which the Celtics held almost a week ahead of the rest of the NBA because of their upcoming preseason trip to Abu Dhabi to play the Denver Nuggets. «In real time, [not playing in the Olympics] was tough. And Joe, I talked to Joe a lot. Joe was probably the happiest person in the world that I didn't win Finals MVP and I didn't play in two games of the Olympics. That was odd, but if you know Joe, it makes sense.»

While Boston finally reached the mountaintop, after years of knocking on the door, to claim its record-setting 18th NBA title in June, and then Tatum won his second gold medal in three years a couple months later, plenty of attention was paid to Jaylen Brown edging Tatum out for Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals MVPs, as well as Tatum's sitting out both games against Serbia as part of the Olympic tournament.

And while Tatum said he didn't need any extra motivation coming into the season, he did admit that the summer was at times a challenging one — specifically saying he'd never experienced being in the situation he was during the Olympics.

«Did I need any extra motivation coming into the season? No, I'm not gonna give anybody in particular credit that they're motivating me to come into the