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Class of 2026 offensive and defensive tackle Tavian Branch has received an offer from Boston College.
The 6-foot-3, 280-pound prospect is a product of Riverside High School in Taylor, Penn., and is a three-star with a 5.5 rating, according to Rivals.
The Eagles are Branch’s 11th Division I offer. He also holds offers from Cincinnati, Duke, Kent State, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
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Steve Kerr’s decision to not play Jayson Tatum in two of the United States wins in the Olympics caused a bit of an uproar, with several former Celtics stars criticizing the coach.
Kevin Garnett, however, has a different take on the matter. The Basketball Hall of Famer believes that it’s a good thing that Tatum didn’t get as much run as expected in the Olympics it allowed him to get a bit of rest after winning an NBA title.
“One of the harder years that I had personally was when you play in the Olympics,” Garnett said in an episode of his podcast, “KG Certified.” “Not only that, but Jayson Tatum has won the NBA Championship in the Olympic year, which is probably the most difficult to do, right? Not only does Jayson not have a summer of relaxing, rejuvenating himself, and getting ready for another year, but you’ve got to lock in when you [play] for Team USA. It’s serious business.”
Even though Tatum is only 26, he’s logged a lot of minutes already in his NBA career due to his durability and Boston’s deep playoff runs. He led the Celtics in total minutes this past season, logging 2,645 minutes in the regular season (16th-most in the NBA) and 768 in the postseason. As of March, he had played 1,455 minutes more than anyone else in the NBA since he was drafted in 2017, according to Boston Sports Info.
Garnett can somewhat relate to Tatum in that regard. He played all but 11 regular-season games in his first five seasons in the league (averaging 36.9 minutes per game) before playing for USA Basketball in the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Sydney Games were also played in September of that year, giving the players on that team less time to rest between the end of the Olympics and the start of the NBA season.
Garnett ended up having a fine year following the Olympics, finishing fifth in MVP voting in the 2000-01 season. But unlike Tatum, Garnett wasn’t coming off a title run, getting eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in the season prior.
Still, Garnett has somewhat of an idea of how fatigued Tatum might be after a long year of basketball.
“It was great that he didn’t have to play a lot of minutes,” Garnett said. “He’s coming off the Finals. I know [Derrick White] and [Jrue] Holiday were there, but to play big minutes [for] the USA, I’m glad they didn’t need Jayson Tatum. I’m glad he got to actually rest and chill.”
With Tatum coming off a title run, Garnett speculated that the Celtics star might have had a dialogue with USA Basketball about having a lesser load with the team.
“When he was getting these DNPs, I bet you that there was a conversation with him and Grant Hill or with management about coming on the team and being able to rest,” Garnett said. “When you win, you get a shortened [offseason]. Everybody else gets four, five months off and you probably get two, 2.5? And then it’s right back in the lab.”
Tatum had an excused tardiness to the team’s camp in Las Vegas in early July, arriving a couple of days late for an undisclosed reason. But he seemed a bit surprised by not playing in the two games against Serbia and logging the second-fewest minutes on the team during the Olympics.
“It was a tough personal experience on the court, but I’m not going to make any decision off emotions,” Tatum told reporters following Team USA’s win over France in the gold medal game if he’d return to the team for the 2028 Olympics. “If you asked me right now if I was going to play in 2028 – it is four years from now and I [would have] to take time and think about that. So I’m not going to make any decision based off how this experience was or how I felt individually.”
Regardless, Tatum’s summer marked just the 10th time that a player has won an NBA title and an Olympic gold medal in the same year (with Holiday and White accounting for two of those occasions). So far, only Michael Jordan (1992-93), Scottie Pippen (1992-93, 1996-97), and LeBron James (2012-13) were the only players to repeat as NBA champions in the following year.
As Tatum, Holiday, and White look to join that company, Garnett is happy that the Celtics’ top star got to save some miles. He also liked how Tatum approached the situation, too.
“I can only imagine how difficult that was for him,” Garnett said. “But shout out to JT, man. I don’t think you heard him bickering. I didn’t hear any echoes about him being unhappy or anything like that. I just think he was trying to get through it and micromanage it.”
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McGrory’s 20th-century perspective — that Boylston Street would be better if vehicle traffic could move unimpeded — is almost amusing. He’s certainly right about one thing, though: “There’s little middle ground” in this debate. He seems to feel that bicycles deserve their own space on the streets of Boston as long as they don’t ride on the streets he likes or cause him one minute of delay on his drive.
Nathaniel Woodward
Stockbridge
Thank you, Brian McGrory, for a timely and well-reasoned column about the changes to Boylston Street. Having worked in that area for 20 years, I was appalled, on a recent return visit, to see the chaotic mess this beautiful street has become. In general I applaud efforts to support commuters who pursue alternatives to driving a car into the city, but these changes have to make sense.
Leaving the bike lane discussion to others, I question the new bus line as not only intrusive but also unnecessary. In my experience, when there were three lanes, the bus was rarely slowed by traffic, and given that there are bus stops all along Boylston Street, it would seem the dedicated lane makes no difference in terms of bus speed or time of the commute.
As new efforts to move people through the city — by bike, car, or bus — are introduced, I hope that the architects of these changes are evaluating whether they achieve their goals and that they are willing to rethink things if they do not.
Pat Kelleher
South Boston
The Brian McGrory column criticizing the bike lanes on Boylston Street unfortunately follows the historical American ideology favoring motorized transportation. This is most evidenced by his complaint that “what used to be three through lanes … has been reduced to a maximum of two.” The headline itself, “Is the Boylston Street bike lane really necessary?” only serves to maintain the hegemony of motorized transportation, something which is way past time for change.
McGrory’s testament that various forms of transportation, such as delivery drivers, are “not going away” is a surrender to these drivers frequently double-parking and violating other regulations while often interfering with other vehicular traffic as well as cyclists and pedestrians. Nowhere to be found in his piece is the suggestion of enforcing laws.
Stating that there is insufficient walk time for crossing the street at selected intersections is a valid criticism, but more importantly, all roads should simply be safe for all users, including pedestrians.
We obviously need improved planning and good implementation. Cheap shots, though, are not helpful.
Robert Rosofsky
Milton
Brian McGrory is lamenting necessary and reasonable changes that haven’t been executed well. But the fact is we don’t need fewer bike lanes. What we need is fewer cars. For that matter, maybe we don’t need any cars on Boylston or Newbury street. They could be magnificent boulevards — no congestion, no chaos; more outdoor seating.
Not only in Copenhagen but also in numerous other European cities the concept works well: enough parking around the city center, public transportation, and a network of bike lanes. The result: vibrant pedestrian zones and commercial centers.
The Boylston Street bike lane is not the problem. Rather, it is the lack of a well-planned, visionary infrastructure concept for the entire city. But that requires all of us changing our relationship to cars, agreeing on funding, and accepting a period of construction. Either we do and come out much better at the end of it, or we keep living with traffic jams and a noisy, messy Boston.
Michaela Nielsen
Quincy
I thought Brian McGrory was spot-on in his criticism of the disaster that traffic on Boylston Street has turned into. It led me to wonder whether our municipal government is actually preparing Bostonians to participate in a new pedestrian olympics.
We have long competed for the greatest number of falls on broken pavements and close encounters with cyclists (old-fashioned and increasingly motorized) speeding on sidewalks as well as in bike lanes. A new competition would involve attempting to cross Boylston Street at intersections where it’s impossible to tell whether there’s oncoming traffic because cars and delivery vans are blocking the view. One popular event would be to identify the pedestrians who use the most colorful language in yelling at drivers and cyclists who come close to hitting them — or in describing the politicians who have created this mess.
Kathryn Ruth Bloom
Boston
Contrary to what columnist Brian McGrory argues, people who bike to the Prudential Center, Copley Square, the Boston Public Library, or the restaurants and stores in Back Bay have an entitlement to Boylston Street equal to drivers.
On Sunday afternoon, I needed to pick up an item at a store in the Pru. Having commuted by bike to my downtown law office for decades, I knew the quickest way to get there and back was by bicycle. Thanks to the new bike lanes that Mayor Michelle Wu has championed, it took me little more than 15 minutes to get to the Prudential Center from Brookline by way of Beacon Street, Mass. Ave., and then Boylston. There was an available bike rack next to a street busker. I picked up my item and headed home, crossing Newbury Street, closed to vehicular traffic on Sundays in the summer and crowded with shoppers, tourists, and others enjoying the fresh air.
The round trip took me an hour, including the shopping. I couldn’t have done that in a motor vehicle.
I concede that the two vehicle lanes on Boylston were crowded with cars, but from what I saw, the cars moved about as fast as in the old days of three lanes for which McGrory longs.
Boylston Street was not built for only motor vehicles. It was built for people who travel on Boylston Street in many ways.
Thank you, Mayor Wu.
Andrew M. Fischer
Brookline
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