Draymond defends Tatum, rips Kerr and Team USA for benching C’s star

Draymond defends Tatum, rips Kerr and Team USA for benching C’s star originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Steve Kerr’s decision not to play Jayson Tatum in Team USA’s first game of the 2024 Paris Olympics apparently was so controversial that Draymond Green is siding with a rival player over his own NBA head coach.

The Golden State Warriors star took time on his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, on Saturday to discuss Tatum shockingly not seeing the floor in Team USA’s group-play win over Serbia last Sunday and didn’t hold back on Kerr and the American coaching staff.

“You don’t not play Jayson Tatum,” Green said. “That man just won an NBA championship, cover of NBA 2K, cover of Sports Illustrated, just signed the biggest contract in NBA history, oh and by the way, your reward is sit down and don’t play in the first Olympic game.”

Green, who was on Team USA’s squad 2020 Tokyo Olympics, noted that Tatum played an integral role in that group winning gold, and that many expected Tatum to take the torch from Kevin Durant as a team leader. So, even though Tatum wasn’t at his best during Team USA’s exhibition games leading up to the 2024 Olympics, Green still believes Kerr made a mistake by benching Tatum against Serbia, which has had a ripple effect on his roster decisions since.

“Not playing (Tatum) was wrong,” Green added. “We all know it was wrong. He should’ve played. He didn’t. But he should have. So, it was wrong, and we know that.

“What I don’t like about it is, now to me it feels like a, ‘Covering my tracks, proving a point’ type of thing to where, oh now Joel (Embiid) is out of the lineup (Wednesday against South Sudan). And then Jrue (Holiday) didn’t play (Saturday against Puerto Rico).

“… From the outside looking in, it comes off as, ‘We made a mistake as a coaching staff.'”

Kerr admitted he “felt like an idiot” not playing Tatum against Serbia but added he went with the lineup combinations that made sense, noting that players would have to make sacrifices on such a talent-laden roster.

We certainly don’t expect Kerr to deploy a 12-man rotation every game, so there could be more DNPs in the knockout rounds. Still, it’s a bit puzzling that Tatum — a versatile two-way wing who can guard multiple positions on defense and create mismatches on offense — would be the odd man out.

Tatum has started the last two games for Team USA and recorded a double-double against Puerto Rico on Saturday, so his benching might be water under the bridge. But as Green rightly pointed out, Kerr put an unnecessary spotlight on his roster decisions by not playing Tatum of the gate.

Team USA’s next game is a quarterfinal matchup with Brazil on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET.