The Boston Celtics had three representatives — Jayson Tatum, Jrue Vacation and Derrick White — be a part of forces with a star-studded United States group within the 2024 Paris Olympics, which booked a gold medal date in opposition to France on Saturday.
For all of the marbles, Tatum and Vacation — who each performed off the bench — mixed to attain eight factors in Crew USA’s 98-87 victory over Crew France. White, who performed underneath seven minutes in the course of the semifinals with Serbia, was benched by United States head coach Steve Kerr for everything of the winner-take-all contest at Accor Area. In the meantime, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry helped flip a late-game nail-bitter right into a cherry-on-top trot throughout the end line, draining back-to-back fourth-quarter 3-point daggers whereas ending with a team-leading 24 factors.
On the opposing aspect, former Celtics first-rounder Guerschon Yabusele took house a silver medal after scoring 20 factors on 6-of-14 capturing. The spotlight of the 28-year-old’s 2024 Olympic finale, nonetheless, got here within the type of Yabusele’s posterizing slam dunk over NBA all-time main scorer LeBron James. From there, Yabusele, Victory Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier — one other ex-Celtic — proceeded to present the US superteam a run for its cash.
Though Tatum, Vacation and White did not pitch in with MVP-caliber contributions, the three prolonged what’s been the Summer season of the Celtics. Almost two months in the past, Tatum, Vacation and White celebrated their NBA Finals victory at TD Backyard, adopted by a duck boat parade across the streets of Boston. The Celtics rewarded the trio with contract extensions, most notably making Tatum the highest-paid ($313 million) participant in league historical past. They will return house with some new {hardware} together with the prospect to repeat and delivery the subsequent nice Celtics dynasty.
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For Vacation, the 34-year-old — for the second time in his profession — gained a Finals championship and Olympic gold medal in the identical yr, becoming a member of Scottie Pippen as the one NBA participant to take action twice, per ESPN Stats & Data. Vacation’s newest journey to the Olympics would possibly’ve cemented his Corridor of Fame case, however there’s nonetheless 4 extra years in Boston to additional polish the 15-year veteran’s candidacy.
