Why was Jayson Tatum benched for Team USA?
On Sunday night in France, Team USA faced off against 3x NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and Serbia. While Team USA ended up dominating the game and winning by 26, the biggest story of the game was the coach’s decision to DNP Jayson Tatum. Now there are numerous theories floating around on why Tatum didn’t play a single second against Serbia, so let’s take a look at a few of them.
We’ll start with head coach Steve Kerr calling himself a moron after the game for not playing Jayson Tatum at all, while at the same time saying it’s hard to find time for all the guys in a 40 minute game. Kerr comes off as wildly disingenuous in these statements. Team USA is always a loaded roster of perennial all-stars and NBA champs, and I can’t recall a player of Tatum’s caliber ever being benched in any international game.
As far as the rotations Kerr did choose, he played Booker for 27 minutes at small forward against a Serbian team he claimed had a size advantage. I’m sure Steve Kerr knows way more about basketball than I do, but how dumb does he really think we are that Jayson Tatum doesn’t fit into his rotations, but Booker at small forward does for 27 minutes. I have a tough time believing it was because of rotations and Kerr’s serious gameplanning for Serbia. You are the Team USA Men’s Basketball Team, you’re not supposed to be gameplanning for anybody, they should be gameplanning for you.
Others have theorized that it could be because of Jaylen Brown speaking out against Team USA. Jayson Tatum stood up for Brown, and some say that now it’s being held against Tatum. Another theory is that Kerr is still upset about the Celtics blowing out the Warriors in the regular season. That was a game in which, again, his team disrespected Jaylen Brown leaving him open all night with Kerr’s players even openly admitting it was part of their strategy after the game. While I don’t care to get in the weeds of the Jaylen Brown-Nike back and forth, it’s tough to deny the facts that Jaylen Brown wasn’t selected to a team he had every right making and then Tatum gets benched for the entire first game after speaking up for his teammate. It seems like a weird almost vindictive move by Kerr.
For me though, focusing solely on the basketball, I find Kerr to be wildly disingenuous and borderline disrespectful to Tatum. Jayson Tatum is not a first time olympian and is not a newly cemented great player in the NBA. He is coming off a championship win in which he led his team in points, rebounds, and assists. Not to mention Tatum is a 3x All-NBA first team member and he’s one of the 5 players in the entire NBA selected to first team All-NBA. In fact, Jayson Tatum was the only American to earn the honors. So, Steve Kerr is trying to imply to the fans and media that he couldn’t find a single minute for the only American All-NBA player in the Olympics for Team USA. I’ve never cared about who plays for Team USA or how many minutes they play in a single game before, but acting as if Jayson Tatum hasn’t earned that right to play in these games is asinine.
I find it disrespectful to not play a guy who has the accolades Tatum has, a player who’s played more minutes in the NBA over the last few seasons than any other player in the league. Tatum could have taken his championship and enjoyed his summer off citing work load or any reason he wanted to not participate, but he knows it’s an incredible honor to represent his country and wanted to do so as an already 1x Olympic gold medal winner in 2020. Tatum was the second best player on that team behind Kevin Durant. So why would Steve Kerr bench a guy who’s done nothing but earn his status in the league and at the Olympics for guys like Joel Embiid and Devin Booker? I have no clue, but Team USA, Steve Kerr, and Grant Hill are earning every “conspiracy” theory thrown their way right now. Your guess as to why Tatum was benched is as good as mine maybe we find out he was banged up later on, or suffering from an illness. However not finding a single minute for a player of Tatum’s status is going to raise eyebrows around the NBA and espescially around Boston.
If you’re a Celtics fan though, I think this summer could be a great thing for the team. One of the biggest critcisms of Jayson Tatum has been that he’s too laid back and a passenger at times. Now, I think being benched at the Olympics combined with Jaylen Brown not being invited at all could fuel both players to send messages to the league that one title isn’t enough. I bet they’ll look to further cement their legacies in the future. Starting the first night of the season as they raise their new banner, I expect Tatum and Brown be very aware of their status in the league and what’s gone on this summer, leading to an explosive start.
