Jayson Tatum got benched in Team USA’s first Olympic basketball game, and it sparked Draymond Green to go against his Golden State Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr.
In an episode of ‘The Drahmond Green Show’, the four-time NBA champion was puzzled as to why Kerr decided not to play Tatum despite of his growing credentials in the league.
“You don’t not play Jayson Tatum,” Green said on ‘The Draymond Green Show’. “That man just won the NBA championship, Cover of NBA 2K, Cover of Sports Illustrated, just signed the biggest contract in NBA history … and your reward is don’t play and sit down in an Olympic game.”
More importantly, Jayson Tatum performed well during tune-up games in Dubai. Draymond Green emphasized that he was not happy with how the Boston Celtics star was treated.
“JT didn’t play well in the exhibition games…and it doesn’t matter,” Green continued. “JT come out and not play, I couldn’t believe that. And not playing him, it was wrong. We all know it was wrong. He should’ve played. He didn’t but he should have played.”
Draymond Green is not happy with Jayson Tatum’s role and Steve Kerr’s Team USA rotations
Even if Draymond Green and Steve Kerr won four championships together as part of the Golden State Warriors in the past 10 years, the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year is not shying away on criticizing his coach.
Tasked with leading Team USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Kerr has been benching top-tier players in the NBA and the rotations that led Green questioning what is going on.
“Quite frankly, I don’t like it. Like come up with a rotation and stick with it,” said Green. “These teams aren’t good enough to where we trying to match their lineup. They got to match our lineup. Because we got the best players in the world …So the whole like match their lineup or you know this guy out of the lineup now, I disagree with it,” he added.
The former Michigan State Wolverine was part of two Team USA Olympic teams. Both resulted in gold medals in 2016 and 2020, and he teamed up with current players like Kevin Durant, Jrue Holiday, Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, and Jayson Tatum.
As of this writing, Team USA is advancing to the quarterfinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Aside from Tatum, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Haliburton had also been benched by Steve Kerr, prompting some backlash on social media.
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