USA Basketball provided Steve Kerr a front-row seat to a sunset ride in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, but the gold medal finish didn't unfold without some questionable controversy involving Boston Celtics star -- and the NBA's highest-paid player -- Jayson Tatum.
Kerr benched Tatum for the entirety of two Olympic matchups, including USA's 95-91 victory over Serbia in the semifinals, watching the most talented assembly of today's brightest NBA stars slip by the skin of their teeth. The Golden State Warriors head coach never provided a reasonable excuse for treating Tatum like a junior varsity benchwarmer and instead watched Stephen Curry, once again, bail him out in the title battle against France before calling it quits, per NBA reporter Marc Stein, as USA's head coach. However, former Celtics assistant coach Evan Turner believes there's more to Kerr's retirement.
"They went crazy on (Tatum), G. I felt like it was targeted, bro," Turner told the "Club 520 Podcast" with Jeff Teague. "When you think about it, it felt it was something deeper than just rotations. Like how you say I can't hoop then give me 11 minutes? ... Steve quit before they fired him. They said this was his last Olympics."
When given a team with future Hall of Famer talent such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Curry and Tatum, there comes an inherited level of expectations. It was gold medal or bust from the get-go, yet Team USA didn't perform up to par. South Sudan nearly pulled off the upset of the Olympics, taking a lead as large as 16 points over USA in their exhibition matchup even with having only two NBA experienced players -- Carik Jones and Wenyen Gabriel -- on its roster. Although Kerr's Team USA pulled off the comeback, there was no excuse to play come-from-behind against one of basketball's biggest underdogs.
At several points throughout USA's nail-bitter versus Serbia, Kerr got desperate in need of a defensive boost while three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić recharged on the bench. Instead of giving Tatum a few justified minutes, Kerr allowed the five-time All-Star to sit patiently with his Team USA warmup gear with no call to action. It was an inexcusable coaching decision, a fireable offense for a head coach who's made a post-playing career out of riding the coattails of Curry's shooting excellence, and only fuels a still-hungry Celtics team in search of becoming the NBA's next great dynasty.
Tatum gets his first chance to teach Kerr and the Warriors a lesson when Boston hosts Golden State on Nov. 6 at TD Garden.
