Make no mistake, the biggest and most important storyline of Team USA’s performance yesterday is that they ultimately won the game and moved on to the gold medal round. What we saw in that 4th quarter from Steph/LeBron/KD/Embiid was as special as it gets, and that earned be the focus.
And yet here we are. Once again, the focus is being taken off that performance and instead placed on Steve Kerr giving Jayson Tatum another DNP-CD. It was one thing the first time it happened against Serbia and everyone who stepped on the court for Team USA played great and blew a 26-point lead. If you wanted to argue that it would be stupid to take someone out of the game who is playing well, that’s fine, whatever. But that certainly wasn’t the case yesterday when Team USA was down 17 points, guys who play a similar position in the rotation were playing like crap, and Kerr still decided Jayson Tatum shouldn’t come off the bench.
Another bizarre decision that other NBA players (including one from Kerr’s own team) didn’t seem to understand
The problem is, part of what makes this so annoying is that Kerr gaslights whenever he’s asked about this decision that clearly doesn’t make sense, especially in a game where the guys are struggling. Calling it a “math problem” and openly admitting the second session was crap but refusing to change anything was as bizarre as him saying he couldn’t use more than 10 players after the first Serbia game, only to use 11 in the next game.
In a game where the U.S. team struggled defensively on the perimeter, didn’t rebound, didn’t transition, etc., it doesn’t make sense to leave a player on the bench who does all of those things.
Now I get it. It’s one thing for me to say that and call Kerr a complete moron. I’m just a petty Celtics/NBA blogger.
And how about NBA legend Bob Cousy? He was asked today what Kerr is doing with Tatum, and he spent his birthday spoiling Steve Kerr.
Advertising
“I don’t know Steve Kerr and everything I’ve ever heard about him has been positive. But there’s a big difference between letting a player play for a few minutes and not letting him play at all. And now he’s taken it up a notch.”
“Tatum is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this month. All the pundits I’ve read recently have him ranked in the top five, sometimes as high as No. 1 in the (expletive) world. Now Kerr is telling the world he doesn’t agree with that. If you can’t find five minutes in a 40-minute game to let someone on the team play without getting injured…
“When Kerr did that last week, he was in no danger of losing the game, but in this case, they were down 17 points and he has to be worried about losing the game. And then him not letting Tatum play on the bench – in my opinion, he must have some kind of bias against the Celtics. He’s not alone in that.
“He certainly had the opportunity to see Tatum up close as an opponent. Now he has him.
“I experienced those emotions from a coach’s perspective. In 1973, I coached an American team that played against the Russians, who had just beaten us in the 1972 Olympics. I had Bill Walton, Ernie DiGregorio, Bobby Jones, George Karl. I had a pretty good team. So I experienced from a coach’s perspective the emotions that you have to deal with in international competition.
“Not allowing Tatum to play at all tells the world, ‘Not only is he not a top-five prospect, he’s not good enough to get into a close game.’ I don’t understand Kerr’s reasoning, and he’s done it twice, so he obviously has strong opinions on it.
“He must think Tatum is a disadvantage, and I don’t understand how he can think that way and still know something about basketball.”
I don’t want to question Bob Cousy, but I don’t think even the biggest Celtics fan in the world (I’d probably be myself) would ever call Tatum the best player in the world. But everything else? Exactly.
What makes this whole thing so frustrating is that it’s ALL self-inflicted. Grant Hill and Steve Kerr seem to have some sort of obsession with creating unnecessary drama around the Celtics’ two best players, and for what reason? How is that supposed to help? We’re not talking about NBA players on the fringes of society here. We’re talking about an All-NBA talent who just played a huge role on the last team to win the Olympic gold medal. In a game where you’re getting slaughtered and guys are playing poorly, it makes no sense at all in basketball to voluntarily leave Tatum on the bench anyway, even considering Tatum has trouble shooting long distance. Kerr didn’t take advantage of Steph’s minutes when he hit 24% of his shots from beyond the arc in the Olympics, and look what happened! He exploded and saved America!
You didn’t see Kerr messing with Booker or Ant’s playing time yesterday, even though they struggled on both ends of the court for most of the game. And yet Jayson Tatum gets penalized/ejected for some reason? That just doesn’t make sense.
In the end, all that matters is beating France to the ground and winning another gold medal. It’s just really annoying that Steve Kerr keeps saying all this nonsense for no reason and then makes fun of you when you ask him about it.
