The basketball world was shocked that Team USA’s head coach, Steve Kerr, did not play Jayson Tatum for a single minute, leaving him as a DNP, drawing major criticism towards them instead of focusing on a blow-out victory over Nikola Jokic and Serbia.
Kerr said he felt “like an idiot” and that it won’t happen again, reassuring the fans and the media that Tatum will be seeing playing time this Wednesday. While everyone found it disrespectful and incomprehensible, Tatum reportedly took it well.
“Jayson will play [Wednesday],” Kerr said. “I’m not going to answer your next question, which is if he plays, who doesn’t. But we’re going to need him, and part of this job for me is to keep everybody engaged and ready, because my experience with this is crazy stuff happens.”
Monday saw Joel Embiid benched for Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant’s debut, but fans still couldn’t believe the coaching staff had completely sat Tatum. Kerr said he didn’t know how to get Tatum involved because he wanted to have bigger lineups and minutes that were not panning out correctly.
Wednesday will be an important game, as Team USA takes on South Sudan. Their opponents nearly beat them before LeBron James knocked down the game-winning shot. It would have been a complete upset if Team USA would have lost.
