Tatum, a star of the NBA last season with the all-conquering Boston Celtics, had to settle for a bench role at the Paris Games.
He played 11 minutes in Saturday's gold medal game as Team USA saw off hosts France to take the Olympic crown for a fifth straight time.
Tatum did not play at all in two of the USA's games – the group-stage and semi-final meetings with Nikola Jokic's Serbia.
But that does not necessarily mean he would not want to feature for Team USA at the Los Angeles Games in four years.
"It was a tough personal experience on the court, but I'm not going to make any decision off [of] emotions.
"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.
"A lot of people text me and reached out and said 'Make sure this fuels you,' which I appreciate. There's a lot of people that care about me.
"I think the tough part is yes, you can use things to fuel you, but I'm still human.
"I've sacrificed and put a lot into this game and work really, really hard. So in the moment it is tough. You're not necessarily worried about fuelling for November or [whenever] the [NBA] season is, but like I said, it's something I'm going to take away from this and learn from this experience.
"It's definitely challenging and humbling at the same time."
Success in the men's basketball was one of 40 golds Team USA scooped at the Paris Games, as they topped the medal table with 126 overall (44 silver, 42 bronze).
China placed second overall, matching Team USA's tally of golds but collecting just 27 silver and 24 bronze.
France might have fallen short in the basketball but they enjoyed a brilliant Games overall to finish fifth.
In scoring 23 points in the United States' 119-84 win over the Czech Republic – a victory that secured their progression to the quarter-finals at Tokyo 2020 – Durant reached 354 in Olympic play.
He is now past Anthony (336) and will expect to stretch his advantage in pursuit of a third Games gold.
The three-pointer that took Durant to new heights gave Team USA their first lead midway through the second quarter, with the Brooklyn Nets forward leading his country's recovery from a slow start.
Tatum took control thereafter, though, finishing on a game-high 27 points.
The 23-year-old is appearing at his first Games but has 50 points through three appearances, prompting Durant to make a bold claim.
Appearing alongside Tatum in a post-game interview, Durant said: "This guy to the left, I think he's going to be the next one to break that record."
Tatum boosted his total with five-for-10 three-point shooting, as the United States made 20 shots from deep – tied for their third-most in an Olympic game.
Coach Gregg Popovich said of Tatum: "Obviously he's more confident but he makes better choices, decision-making wise.
"He attacks for himself and for a team-mate at the same time, and he didn't do that in the very beginning in the league; he was just a scorer.
"But now he's valuable because he does the other things. He's starting to rebound better. We're telling him that it's important, we're not that big and we do need him on the boards."
In the same news conference, Durant was asked again about his achievement in surpassing Anthony.
"You just think about all the players that played in this programme and [it is] pretty cool to be among names like that," he said.
"Carmelo is a guy that I played on two Olympic teams with and I've seen his approach to these games and I try to steal some of his techniques and approach.
"It's still pretty weird for me to do stuff like this because I play a team sport and I try my hardest to make it about the group.
"But it is special to do something like that and scoring is something that I've worked on my whole career and something that I've expanded my whole career, and to consistently do it is pretty cool."
