A Boston Celtics legend believes Team USA coach Steve Kerr is trying to embarrass Jayson Tatum at the Olympics because of anti-Celtics bias.
Hall of Famer Bob Cousy, 96, accused Kerr of “going out of his way to embarrass one of his players” after not playing Tatum during Team USA’s comeback win over Serbia on Thursday. It was the second time during the Olympics that Tatum received the dreaded DNP-CD from Kerr.
“This is not just a snub. This is an embarrassment to that poor child all over the world. [expletive] world”, cozy he told Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe“The Olympics have become so big. Everyone is going to think something is wrong with this kid.
“Someone in Boston should stand up for this kid. In my opinion, this is going out of their way to embarrass one of your players.”
Cousy added that Tatum has received several accolades recently after leading the Celtics to an NBA title, and is considered one of the top five talents in the world. He questioned why Kerr couldn’t even find a few minutes to put Tatum in either game and attributed it to an anti-Celtics bias on the part of the coach.
“Tatum is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this month. Every pundit I’ve read lately has picked him in the top five, and sometimes as the number one pick on the list. [expletive] “The world,” Cousy argued. “Now Kerr is telling the world that he doesn’t agree. In a 40-minute game, if you can’t find five minutes to play against someone on the team without getting hurt… When Kerr did it last week, he wasn’t in danger of losing the game, but in this case they went down 17 points and he has to worry about losing the game. And then not letting Tatum come off the bench — to me, there has to be some kind of bias he has against the Celtics. He’s not alone there.”
Kerr can certainly be criticized for not using Tatum more, but Cousy’s accusations of bias don’t really hold up to scrutiny. For one, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, who also play for the Celtics, average roughly 19 and 16 minutes per game in the Olympics, so Kerr has no problem playing them. The other problem is that other star players have at times received the same treatment as Tatum. most notably Joel Embiid, who runs more against opponents with talented big men, was the preferred option against Serbia on Thursday, which is why he, not Tatum, was the preferred option.
Kerr has a 10-man rotation and As you said beforeThat means some players will be left out of certain games. One can certainly disagree on whether Tatum should be one of them.
