Team USA men's basketball is preparing for the gold medal game against France. It took an improbable fourth-quarter comeback by Team USA, thanks in large part to the heroics of Stephen Curry, to get the win over Serbia. Perhaps the biggest headline of the game was Steve Kerr's decision not to play Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum.
Tatum's absence from the rotations has drawn plenty of criticism after the win. In the game against Brazil in the quarterfinal round, Tatum played 20 minutes off the bench in the blowout victory. On Friday, Celtics legend Bob Cousy also joined in on the chatter and did not hold back on Kerr's decision, per Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe.
“This isn’t just a snub,” Cousy said. “This is an embarrassment for that poor kid all over the [expletive] world. The Olympics have gotten that big. Everyone’s going to think that there’s something wrong this this kid.”
Cousy doubled down even more on Kerr's head-scratching decision, even suggesting there is some sort of Celtics “bias.”
“When Kerr did it last week, he was in no danger of losing the game, but in this case they got down by 17 points and he’s got to worry about losing the game. And then to not let Tatum get off the bench — to me, there’s got to be some kind of bias that he’s got against the Celtics. He’s not alone there.”
It didn't end there for Cousy, either. The Celtics legend continued to express his frustration with Kerr's decision.
“Not playing Tatum at all says to the world, ‘Not only is he not top five, he’s not good enough to get into a close game.’ I can’t figure out Kerr’s thinking, and he’s done it twice, so he obviously feels strongly about it. He must think Tatum is a detriment, and I don’t see how he can feel that way and know anything about basketball.”
It certainly has been a puzzling turn of events, especially with Tatum winning the NBA Finals with the Celtics and making the cover of Sports Illustrated. He also signed a massive five-year extension worth $315 million, so benching one of the game's best players despite being down big in a must-win contest is confusing.
Bob Cousy can relate to Steve Kerr but still doesn't agree
Tatum's absence is surprising, and even his mom took to social media to question why he hasn't been involved in many of the games in Paris. Tatum did get the start against Puerto Rico and played 23 minutes, scoring 10 points. But not to play him in the semifinal game, especially when Team USA was losing at halftime to Serbia, is a big surprise.
But, Cousy stated that he also had coaching decisions to deal with as he coaches multiple NBA stars.
“I’ve been through these emotions from a coaching standpoint. In 1973, I coached an American team that played against the Russians, who had just beaten us in the 1972 Olympics. I had Bill Walton, Ernie DiGregorio, Bobby Jones, and George Karl. I had a pretty good unit. So I’ve been through the emotions from a coaching standpoint as to what you deal with in international competition.”
So, in many ways, Cousy can feel the difficulties Kerr is dealing with but he still feels there is some bias and just some interesting rotations by the Team USA coach. Nonetheless, the Americans are going for the gold against Victor Wembanyama and France. If Tatum doesn't play again, things might not go over too well for Steve Kerr.
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