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.
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…
Kerr admits Tatum was a straight up DNP-CD. “I went with the combinations that made sense. That was for tonight. He handled it well. He’ll make his mark.” #Celtics#Paris2024
New: “I thought I was crazy when I looked at everything & determined these are the lineups I wanted to get to. Jayson is first-team All-NBA three years in a row… I talked to him, and he was incredibly professional.”
Steve Kerr has so many bad decisions this game I don’t even know which focus on at half time
Obviously the Jayson Tatum stuff is moronic and his biggest mistake, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg with this idiot
— Immortan Joe Mazzulla (@Handsome_Jake_) July 28, 2024
I was wrong. Doesn’t make it any less stupid. Thankfully the team is talented enough to work around a series of poor coaching decisions thus far. https://t.co/aKFr0aqNdW
JT can choose to handle this however he wants but considering his accomplishments in both the NBA and for Team USA I think I he’d be justified in saying just about anything he wants about Steve Kerr right now
Team USA is a HIGHLY political organization. 30 years on we talk about why Isiah Thomas wasn’t on the Dream Team. Jaylen is feuding with Grant Hill and it’s news. Kerr embarrassed Tatum and did it knowingly. https://t.co/KOJsGT2qk2
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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