It seems like everyone connected to basketball has voiced their opinion about Steve Kerr benching Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum in Team USA’s men’s basketball opener against Serbia on Sunday.
Celtics champion Kendrick Perkins, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, and retired NBA forward Matt Barnes questioned why Kerr wouldn’t play Tatum in Team USA’s blowout win, and Colin Cowherd weighed in that the Celtics forward is “way at the back” of the league’s top players.
ESPN’s Frank Isola brought up a very interesting fact when he discussed why Tatum didn’t play on SiriusXM’s NBA radio on Monday.
“Of the guys on the current (Team USA) roster, no one received more MVP votes for the (2023-24) season than Jayson Tatum. Keep that in mind,” Isola said. “He’s coming off a year, or he’s just a couple of months removed from winning an NBA championship where he was really close to probably being the MVP … it ended up being Jaylen Brown, who’s not even on the team, but that’s another story entirely we won’t get into.”
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Isola understands that when you have a roster of superstars, not everyone is going to play every game, but he doesn’t understand why Tatum would be the player who rides the bench.
“I get it. I understand it’s gonna be 10 guys,” he said. “… Steve Kerr has got to make these tough calls, but it’s gotta be Jayson Tatum? … I understand what Steve Kerr is doing, but how do you reach the conclusion that it should be Tatum just based on what everyone on the team has done over the last couple of months. He’s going to be the odd man out? I’m not saying Lebron (James) should be the odd man out or Kevin Durant, but how is Jayson Tatum the odd man out?”
Tatum is expected to get some playing time in Team USA’s matchup with South Sudan on Wednesday, per The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach.
