The USA Basketball men’s team handily beat Serbia to open up group play in the 2024 Olympics in Paris on Sunday, but the discussion after the game seemingly isn’t going to be as positive as the team likely hoped.
Steve Kerr benched Jayson Tatum vs. Serbia and Celtics fans are pissed
Steve Kerr benching Celtics star Jayson Tatum could be USA Basketball’s first controversy of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Image via NBC broadcast
Harrison Faigen has been covering the NBA (primarily the Lakers) since 2013, and is currently the Associate Director of Pro Basketball coverage for SB Nation.
Because while most of Team USA appeared to be having a blast during Sunday’s 110-84 win, one of the two members of the roster to not see the court for a single second appeared less than thrilled about it.
On a team as talented as USA Basketball, some guys are always going to get fewer minutes than they feel they deserve. However, it seems unlikely that Jayson Tatum pictured any circumstance in his mind where he got a Did Not Play — Coaches Decision (DNP-CD) in the Olympics, even on a roster this loaded.
But as both Tatum and U.S. men’s head coach Steve Kerr confirmed after the game, that’s exactly what happened. Tatum told Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe that he wasn’t sick with the bug that’s been going around Team USA...
...while Kerr added it was his decision to bench the only 2024 All-NBA First-Team selection on Team USA for the whole game:
None of that is likely to make Celtics fans any less upset about the demotion online, though:
Now we should note again that Kerr made sure to credit Tatum’s professionalism multiple times postgame, and his remarks make it at least appear as though Tatum’s role (or lack thereof) was communicated to him beforehand. At least for now, it appears he didn’t find out he wouldn’t be playing at all at the same time as the rest of us, and handled it about as well as he possibly could have.
Still, it will be interesting to see how this situation continues to unfold. Maybe Tatum plays 15-20 minutes the next game and someone else shuffles out of the lineup, or maybe an injury forces a chance for him to play hero. However, while Team USA can probably win without Tatum in 2024, if he continues to be passed over on such a prominent stage and has to hear about it online constantly, Kerr is making it a real possibility they’ll have to win without the now-26-year-old in 2028, too.
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