People continue to react to Steve Kerr’s management of Jayson Tatum’s playing time during the Olympics. Former Olympic and Duke Basketball’s coach Mike Krzyzewski said that he had no problem with it because the overriding mission was to win and the team did that.
Carmelo Anthony said that he thought Kerr should have been more transparent: “I understand why Tatum may have not played. I don’t agree with how they went about it… I’m cool with you saying he’s not going to play, just be honest. This is where we have a lack of communication… If I was Tatum, I would be pissed. He’s the cover athlete of 25, on Sports Illustrated, 2K. This is male athlete of the year, and it’s somebody that you were building Team USA around… I just with the communication was a little bit more between him and Kerr.”
Then there’s Kevin Garnett, who in some ways had the most interesting take. He argues that Kerr actually did him a favor, that playing as much as he did this year, that playing in the Finals and then playing in the Olympics was too much. Basically he argues that getting fewer minutes works to Tatum’s advantage.
That’s somewhat undercut by how Kerr used Tatum’s Boston teammates Derrick White and Jrue Holiday, but it’s still a really interesting argument.
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