With only a few weeks left for the NBA season, the Paris Olympics controversy still follows Steve Kerr. The 9x NBA Champ probably had his stars aligned perfectly as he coached one of the most dominant teams in the history of basketball. And won the gold medal as well. However, Kerr found himself amidst a controversial coaching decision involving Jayson Tatum, which nagged him throughout the tournament. While it settled down after the Paris trip, fans reignited it after his latest speech on Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention.
It’s certainly hard to form a second unit and player rotation for a roster that has 10 All-Stars. Ultimately, Kerr took the tough decision to reduce Jayson Tatum’s minutes and benched him for two games. Initially, when the press asked him about the decision to bench the Boston Celtics superstar, Kerr said, he “felt like an idiot.” But he continued to operate with the same plan. Nevertheless, the controversy died down after the tournament.
However, it popped up again after he made a unique take during his speech at the DNC night. Steve Kerr called for the entire American population to play on the same team and support Kamala Harris. Specifically, he said, “Think about what our team achieved with 12 Americans in Paris putting aside rivalries to represent our country. Now imagine what we could do with all 330 million of us playing on the same team.” While the statement wasn’t anything related to the Jayson Tatum controversy, a reporter hit the nail.
Steve Kerr references Dream Team players coming together to win gold during DNC speech: “Now imagine what we could do with all 330 million of us playing on the same team.”
He did NOT specify whether Jayson Tatum could participate with the other 329,999,999 Americans
— Jason Schwartz (@JasonSchwartz) August 20, 2024
Jason Schwartz put his number game to use and pulled off a lighthearted humor. He asked whether Jayson Tatum would be included in the 330 million if they all played on the same team.
“Fu*king hate him”: Fans rage in the throwing mixed reaction to the comment
The thing is certain, Jayson Tatum has both fans and haters. We have carefully cherry-picked reactions from both sides. Firstly, let’s look into the comments that had no issues with Tatum warming the bench. A fan, reacting to Jason Schwartz’s post, wrote, “Tatum will be allowed back once he finds his jump shot.” This fan went straight to the business, criticizing the Celtics star for concerning shooting ability at Paris. JT had an underwhelming shooting percentage of 38.1 with an 8/21 FG and 0/4 from the arc.
Another fan reminded the fans of the Paris Olympics visuals, writing, “Jayson can root from the sideline.” Even though Team USA had a dominant run in the tournament, the meme pages and analysts were busy discussing JT’s DNP. Moreover, the images of disappointed Tatum from the bench were widely circulated.
Before leaving, do watch the Dual Threat Show hosted by BG12 where Bulldogs’ Asia Avinger details her experience with Kobe Bryant, her WNBA ROTY picks, and more in the video below.
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