Kerr’s disgraceful treatment of Tatum continues to defy logic

Kerr’s disgraceful treatment of Tatum continues to defy logic originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

There’s only one conclusion to draw from Team USA’s narrow escape against Serbia on Thursday: Steve Kerr is an idiot.

Hey, that’s his word, not mine. Barely two weeks ago, Kerr inexplicably sat Jayson Tatum the first time the two teams met at the Paris Olympics and then told ESPN that he “felt like an idiot” for not playing him. When history repeated itself on Thursday with Tatum glumly planted on the bench, it called to mind the famous aphorism: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, you’re an idiot.”

I have no idea why Kerr is effing with the best player on the best team in the NBA, but I’m here for whatever devastation the Revenge Tour wreaks across the Bay Area next season.

It seemed like Finals MVP Jaylen Brown would be leading that charge after USA basketball stubbornly bypassed him twice for the roster. But that was before Kerr decided to humiliate Tatum on a world stage, most egregiously in a must-win game that appeared headed for disaster until the incomparable Steph Curry conjured his magic.

What Kerr is doing to Tatum can’t simply be about basketball. It feels like a shot at the Celtics, as if Kerr believes his team’s 2022 title over the not-quite-ready-for-primetime C’s should supersede the wrecking ball Tatum and Co. just took to the rest of the NBA while raising the franchise’s record 18th banner. They’re threats to win Nos. 19 and 20 in short order, thus challenging Kerr’s Warriors for modern NBA supremacy.

Even if you accept that this is the Old Guy Olympics built around Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant taking their final shots at gold, Tatum shouldn’t be sitting behind anyone.

Please explain why Devin Booker, a player who consistently posts empty numbers on a faux-contender, has played nearly twice as much as Tatum? Or why flavor-of-the-month Anthony Edwards is more worthy of crunch-time minutes?

There’s no rational argument for sitting Tatum, especially against a team like Serbia, which rained threes on Thursday while Kerr left one of his best switching defenders on the bench. Even if you…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kerrs-disgraceful-treatment-tatum-continues-143441623.html

Author : NBC Sports Boston

Publish date : 2024-08-09 14:42:45

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