Team USA’s dominant 110-84 win over Serbia has unfortunately been overshadowed by coach Steve Kerr’s decision to bench Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton. In the last 24 hours, fans and pundits have given their take on this subject and it seems like some people have already had enough of it.
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Austin Rivers took to X to add his two cents to this burning debate. The 31-year-old trashed the people who were rejoicing that the two NBA stars didn’t get any play time and using it to diminish their value on the team.
Rivers called out the ‘corny’ people on social media who think that Haliburton and Tatum not getting any playing time is to be taken as a disrespect towards them. He wrote, “We got people on the internet clowning Tatum and Hali for getting no burn. Yall corny for that!!”
They couldn’t get any playing time because once Kevin Durant came off the bench, he took over the scoring responsibilities and dropped 21 points in the first half.
We got people on the internet clowning Tatum and Hali for getting no burn. Yall corny for that!! Both these dudes were standing the whole game supporting their squad, and both will have an impact at some point or another in these games. They are what winners look like 💯
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) July 29, 2024
That performance didn’t allow coach Kerr to replace KD with anyone else on the bench as the Suns superstar was in a great rhythm. Despite that, Haliburton and JT did their best to motivate their teammates and cheered for them. Rivers gave them a shoutout for their sportsman spirit.
“Both these dudes were standing the whole game supporting their squad, and both will have an impact at some point or another in these games. They are what winners look like,” he continued.
"He handled it really well. I talked to him today before the game that it may play out this way just with Kevin coming back… Jayson's gonna play… I felt like an idiot not playing him" -Steve Kerr https://t.co/xwndCt6GW1
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) July 28, 2024
When coach Kerr was later asked about his decision, he said that Tatum took it professionally and that he will play for Team USA in the next game. He said, “Jason’s gonna play. Every game’s gonna be different…He’s a total pro…I felt like an idiot not playing him.”
Kerr stated that in 40 minutes, it’s tough for him to play more than 10 players, but he’s glad that JT didn’t take his decision the wrong way. The same can’t be said about a former player turned ESPN analyst.
Tim Legler believes Tatum was disrespected
While Kerr claims that Tatum didn’t take his decision personally, Tim Legler was fuming. He believed that the Celtics star was disrespected by Coach Kerr because he allowed some players who weren’t on the same level as Tatum to play.
After acknowledging that JT’s position on the court collides with KD and Anthony Davis, he stated that a player of his caliber deserves to be put on the court.
Espn analyst Tim legler says that Steve Kerr benching Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum against Serbia today was incredibly disrespectful Derrick White got 15 mins and he’s a 5th option on the Celtics pic.twitter.com/qSH8kz0Znv
— joebuddenclips (@Chatnigga101) July 28, 2024
He said, “I totally disagree with what happened to him today. I thought it was incredibly disrespectful. Jayson Tatum has got one hell of a resume. Jayson Tatum has got a much greater resume than guys on that team today that were playing a lot of minutes.”
Legler also suggested that if a space can’t be created for 12 players, then Team USA should’ve only chosen 10 players on the squad so that nobody gets disrespected like this.
