USA Basketball supplied Steve Kerr a front-row seat to a sundown trip within the 2024 Paris Summer time Olympics, however the gold medal end did not unfold with out some questionable controversy involving Boston Celtics star — and the NBA’s highest-paid participant — Jayson Tatum.
Kerr benched Tatum for the whole lot of two Olympic matchups, together with USA’s 95-91 victory over Serbia within the semifinals, watching essentially the most proficient meeting of at the moment’s brightest NBA stars slip by the pores and skin of their enamel. The Golden State Warriors head coach by no means supplied an affordable excuse for treating Tatum like a junior varsity benchwarmer and as a substitute watched Stephen Curry, as soon as once more, bail him out within the title battle in opposition to France earlier than calling it quits, per NBA reporter Marc Stein, as USA’s head coach. Nevertheless, former Celtics assistant coach Evan Turner believes there’s extra to Kerr’s retirement.
“They went loopy on (Tatum), G. I felt prefer it was focused, bro,” Turner instructed the “Membership 520 Podcast” with Jeff Teague. “When you consider it, it felt it was one thing deeper than simply rotations. Like the way you say I can not hoop then give me 11 minutes? … Steve stop earlier than they fired him. They stated this was his final Olympics.”
When given a crew with future Corridor of Famer expertise reminiscent of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Curry and Tatum, there comes an inherited stage of expectations. It was gold medal or bust from the get-go, but Staff USA did not carry out as much as par. South Sudan practically pulled off the upset of the Olympics, taking a lead as massive as 16 factors over USA of their exhibition matchup even with having solely two NBA skilled gamers — Carik Jones and Wenyen Gabriel — on its roster. Though Kerr’s Staff USA pulled off the comeback, there was no excuse to play come-from-behind in opposition to considered one of basketball’s greatest underdogs.
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At a number of factors all through USA’s nail-bitter versus Serbia, Kerr bought determined in want of a defensive increase whereas three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić recharged on the bench. As a substitute of giving Tatum just a few justified minutes, Kerr allowed the five-time All-Star to sit down patiently together with his Staff USA warmup gear with no name to motion. It was an inexcusable teaching choice, a fireable offense for a head coach who’s made a post-playing profession out of driving the coattails of Curry’s capturing excellence, and solely fuels a still-hungry Celtics crew searching for turning into the NBA’s subsequent nice dynasty.
Tatum will get his first likelihood to show Kerr and the Warriors a lesson when Boston hosts Golden State on Nov. 6 at TD Backyard.
