Team USA men’s basketball opened their 2024 Summer Olympics campaign with a 110-84 drubbing of Serbia on Sunday morning.
But the decision by head coach Steve Kerr to not play Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum in the contest certainly turned a lot of heads, including ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
“The reigning defending NBA champion Jayson Tatum, and you can’t find minutes,” Smith said in a video posted to his social media account on X. “In a 26-point lopsided victory, you can’t find one minute?”
The outspoken media personality said he is trying not to cuss because his pastor sometimes watches his shows and videos, but that didn’t stop Smith from screaming into his microphone.
“Steve Kerr, that’s some straight (expletive),” he said. “You got to be kidding me. Oooo, these people getting on my damn nerves and to have (Tatum) go through and entire NBA season and then go through the playoffs and capture a championship and still take his offseason to join Team USA and to have a champion riding the bench like he’s some waterboy — you got to be kidding me. Really hard in a 40-minute game to play more than 10 guys. It’s Team USA. Zero?”
Tatum is expected to get some playing time in Team USA’s matchup with South Sudan on Wednesday, per The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach.
“For sure the hardest part of this job is you’re sitting at least a couple of guys who are world-class, some of the very best players on earth,” Kerr said, per Himmelsbach. “On the one hand, it makes no sense at all. On the other, I’m asking these guys to just commit to winning one game and then move on to the next one.
“I have to do the same thing. I felt like last night those were the combinations that made the most sense. Jayson will play (Wednesday).”
While Tatum himself has not spoken out about not playing in the USA’s opening contest, 14-year NBA veteran Matt Barnes questions Kerr’s decision to not play the Celtics forward, but FS1’s Colin Cowherd appears to have sided with the coach.
