USA Men’s Basketball Team Beat Serbia with ease The team is set to kick off their 2024 Olympic group stage campaign in Paris on Sunday, but post-match talks are unlikely to be as positive as the team had hoped.
Because most of the players on Team USA It seemed Have fun meanwhile Sunday’s 110-84 victoryone of two members on the roster. I can’t see the court for even a moment. He didn’t seem very excited.
With a team as loaded with talent as USA Basketball, some players are bound to get less playing time than they feel they deserve, but Jayson Tatum never envisioned a situation where he would be called a coach’s decision not to play (DNP-CD) at the Olympics, even with such a loaded roster.
But that’s exactly what happened, as both Tatum and U.S. men’s national team coach Steve Kerr confirmed after the game. Tatum told Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe that he did not have the virus circulating among the U.S. team…
…while Carr is the only 2024 All-NBA First Team selection For Team USA throughout the match:
Kerr acknowledged that Tatum was a perfect DNP-CD: “We picked the combination that made sense. That’s what we were going to do tonight. He handled it well. He’s going to make his mark.” #Celtics #Paris2024
— Gary Washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) July 28, 2024
What’s new: “When I looked at it all and decided this was the lineup I wanted to go for, I wondered if I was crazy. Jason has been named to the All-NBA First Team three years in a row… I’ve talked to him and he’s been incredibly professional.”
Steve Kerr on Tatum’s DNP: https://t.co/gZAxSJVgee
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) July 28, 2024
None of them, Celtics However, fans online don’t seem too upset about the relegation.
Does Steve Kerr know that Jayson Tatum is on his team?
—Dan Greenberg (@StoolGreenie) July 28, 2024
Steve Kerr made so many bad decisions in this game that I didn’t even know what to focus on at halftime.
The Jayson Tatum thing was obviously stupid and his biggest mistake, but it’s just the tip of this idiot’s iceberg.
— Immortan Joe Mazzulla (@Handsome_Jake_) July 28, 2024
I was wrong, that doesn’t make it any less of a stupid move, and thankfully the team is talented enough to avoid a string of poor coaching decisions. https://t.co/aKFr0aqNdW
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) July 28, 2024
Next year we’ll see Jayson Tatum score 50 points over Steve Kerr’s head.
— j (@lockedupjb) July 28, 2024
JT can handle this however he wants, but given his accomplishments with the NBA and the US National Team, I think he’s justified in saying whatever he wants to say about Steve Kerr now.
— Ryan Bernardoni (@dangercart) July 28, 2024
Tatum has never had any drama in his career, and I expect he’ll continue that way, but if he wants to quit, he has the right to do so.
— Ryan Bernardoni (@dangercart) July 28, 2024
Team USA is a highly political organization. Thirty years later, Isaiah Thomas talks about why he didn’t make the Dream Team. Jalen is in the news for his feud with Grant Hill. Carr embarrassed Tatum and did it on purpose. https://t.co/KOJsGT2qk2
— Ryan Bernardoni (@dangercart) July 28, 2024
Again, it’s important to note that Kerr repeatedly praised Tatum’s professionalism after the game, which at least makes it seem like Tatum’s role (or lack thereof) was communicated in advance. At least for now, it seems like he was completely unaware that he wouldn’t be able to play with all of us at the same time and was handling it as best he could.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see how this situation plays out. Maybe Tatum plays 15 or 20 minutes next game while someone else is out of the lineup, or maybe an injury gives him a chance to be the hero. But while Team USA can probably win without Tatum in 2024, if he continues to be ignored on such big stages and then hear about it constantly online, Kerr is opening up the real possibility that he’ll have to win without the now 26-year-old Tatum in 2028 as well.
