Boston Celtics fans are still upset with Steve Kerr over Jayson Tatum’s Olympics “snub.” No surprise, then, that Kerr was roundly hooted Wednesday night at TD Garden when his Golden State Warriors were introduced before the team’s first post-Paris showdown against the Celtics. The booing was on a par with the manner in which back-in-the-day Celtics fans treated bruising Detroit Pistons center Bill Laimbeer, or, in more recent times, former Celtic Kyrie Irving. But not really. Let’s be real: There are deep-in-the-belly fan controversies, and there’s what took place at the Garden on Wednesday night, which was a lot of no-harm, no-foul booing. Besides, by the time this hard-fought game between two top-tier NBA teams had ended, the Warriors coming back for a 118-112 victory after letting an 11-point halftime lead slip away, the pregame booing directed at Kerr seemed like something that had happened a month ago. As for Tatum submitting a “statement game,” and we’ll talk plenty about statement games in a moment, that didn’t happen. He did score 32 points, which led everybody, but it was Steph Curry (27 points) who took over in the fourth quarter. Curry, then, was the big postgame story. Just as Kerr-Tatum was the big pregame story, right down to the telecast on NBC Sports Boston making frequent references to Kerr being “the villain.” Not that Kerr didn’t raise eyebrows by losing Tatum’s number during the Olympics. He did raise eyebrows. Not that Celtics fans weren’t within their ticket-holding rights to razz Kerr. They were, so they did. But Kerr, a veteran of the big basketball stage both as a player and coach, went along with it all. His name was announced by public address announcer Eddie Palladino, whereupon everybody booed, and Kerr took his eyes off his clipboard for a moment and waved. Speaking with the media before the game, he said, “I don’t think anybody actually cared enough about me to boo me, but we’ll see how it goes tonight.” Here’s how it went: The crowd cared enough to let him know. As for Tatum, he has chosen to be Kool & The Gang with all this. Publicly, anyway. He’s older now — 26! — and he’s earned a seat at the table with Russell, Cousy, Havlicek, Bird, Pierce and the many other Celtics legends who’ve crafted championship banners. Speaking in August with The Athletic’s Jared Weiss about his Olympic experience, such as it was, Tatum said, “I wasn’t moping around. I didn’t have an attitude. I wasn’t angry at the world. I stayed ready and did what was asked of me and I won a gold medal, right?” Right. A second gold medal, in fact, if we take into account the 2020 Summer Games (played in 2021) in which he did play. He contributed 19 points and seven rebounds in the Americans’ 87-82 victory over France in the final. But this is also true: Any time an athletic contest has even a whiff of somebody wanting to deliver these statement games, it’s an irresistible subplot for fans and media. When statement games do happen, they get talked about a ton. Sometimes they are even remembered. A personal favorite: Roger Clemens returning to Fenway Park on July 12, 1997, as a Toronto Blue Jay to make his first start against the Red Sox. The backstory was tantalizing: Sox general manager Dan Duquette had submitted that Clemens was in the “twilight” of his career after Boston’s three-time Cy Young Award winner filed for free agency and then packed for Toronto. And then the “Rocket” returned to Fenway and registered 16 strikeouts (against no walks) over eight innings in the Jays’ 3-1 victory. As Clemens walked off the mound after striking out the side in the eighth inning — Nomar Garciaparra looking, John Valentin and big Mo Vaughn swinging — he made a point to aim an impossible-not-to-notice stare up to the executive level. At Duquette, presumably. Clemens disagreed, saying he was looking for family members. “He came to make a point, and he did,” Vaughn told reporters after the game. “It was a special day,” Clemens said. Some other “statement” games from over the years? Longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre had his one-season stint with the Jets in 2008 and then signed with the Minnesota Vikings, who, like the Packers, play in the NFC North. When the Vikings played the Packers at Lambeau Field on Nov. 1, 2009, Favre threw four touchdown passes in Minnesota’s 38-26 victory. Packers fans jeered. Fine with Favre, who said, “Packer fans cheer for the Packers first. I know that. But I hope that everyone in the stadium watching tonight said, ‘I sure hate those jokers on the other side, but he does play the way he’s always played.'” Also from the NFL, receiver Steve Smith Sr. played with the Carolina Panthers from 2001 to 2013 and then was cut. “I want to make sure that whatever team I go to, they’re going to get the best, in-shape 35-year-old guy they can get,” Smith said. “If that happens to run through Bank of America Stadium (in Charlotte, N.C.), put your goggles on ’cause there’s going to be blood and guts everywhere.” Smith signed with the Baltimore Ravens, whose 2014 schedule did not take them to Bank of America Stadium. But they did host the Panthers at M&T Stadium in late September. There’s no statistical record of blood and guts, but Joe Flacco connected with Smith for a 61-yard touchdown pass in Baltimore’s 38-10 victory. Tatum didn’t have one of those statement games Wednesday night. His team lost. But there’s also some very obvious recent history, the Warriors having knocked off the Celtics in the NBA Finals three seasons ago, so we’ll always have something to talk about when these two teams play. If the Celts and Warriors wind up meeting again in the NBA Finals next spring, the Kerr-Tatum debate will likely get dusted off and talked about all over again. The networks love that stuff. And if Tatum throws in a 3-point buzzer-beater to topple the Warriors in the NBA Finals, that’ll be your statement game to remember, not what happened Wednesday night.