A Boston Celtics legend thinks Staff USA coach Steve Kerr is making an attempt to embarrass Jayson Tatum on the Olympics because of an anti-Celtics bias.
96-year-old Corridor of Famer Bob Cousy accused Kerr of “going out of (his) solution to embarrass one in every of your gamers” after not taking part in Tatum throughout Staff USA’s comeback win over Serbia on Thursday. It marked the second time in the course of the Olympics that Tatum received the dreaded DNP-CD from Kerr.
“This isn’t only a snub. This is a humiliation for that poor child all around the [expletive] world,” Cousy told Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe. “The Olympics have gotten that large. Everybody’s going to suppose that there’s one thing flawed this this child.
“Any person from Boston ought to arise for this child. In my judgment, that is going out of your solution to embarrass one in every of your gamers.”
Cousy added that Tatum has acquired quite a few accolades not too long ago after main the Celtics to an NBA title, and he’s considered a top-five world expertise. He questioned why Kerr couldn’t even discover a couple of minutes to place Tatum in both sport and chalked it as much as anti-Celtics bias on the coach’s half.
“Tatum is on the duvet of Sports activities Illustrated this month. Any specialists that I’ve learn recently have chosen him within the high 5, and typically No. 1 within the [expletive] world,” Cousy argued. “Now Kerr is telling the world that he doesn’t agree. In a 40-minute sport, if you happen to can’t discover 5 minutes to play any individual on the staff with out hurting your self … When Kerr did it final week, he was in no hazard of shedding the sport, however on this case they received down by 17 factors and he’s received to fret about shedding the sport. After which to not let Tatum get off the bench — to me, there’s received to be some sort of bias that he’s received in opposition to the Celtics. He’s not alone there.”
One can actually be important of Kerr for not utilizing Tatum extra, however Cousy’s accusations of bias don’t actually maintain as much as scrutiny. For one, Jrue Vacation and Derrick White, who additionally play for the Celtics, are averaging roughly 19 and 16 minutes per sport on the Olympics, so Kerr has no drawback taking part in them. The opposite difficulty is that different star gamers have acquired the identical therapy as Tatum at occasions, most notably Joel Embiid, who will get extra run in opposition to opponents with proficient large males. That’s the reason he, not Tatum, was the popular choice in opposition to Serbia on Thursday.
Kerr is operating a 10-man rotation, and as he has said previously, which means some gamers are going to be ignored of sure video games. One can actually disagree whether or not Tatum must be one in every of them.
