Celtics legend accuses Steve Kerr of ‘bias’ for benching Jayson Tatum

Jan 18, 2020; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr stands on the sideline during the fourth quarter against the Orlando Magic at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

A Boston Celtics legend thinks Team USA coach Steve Kerr is trying to embarrass Jayson Tatum at the Olympics due to an anti-Celtics bias.

96-year-old Hall-of-Famer Bob Cousy accused Kerr of “going out of (his) way to embarrass one of your players” after not playing Tatum during Team USA’s comeback win over Serbia on Thursday. It marked the second time during the Olympics that Tatum got the dreaded DNP-CD from Kerr.

“This isn’t just a snub. This is an embarrassment for that poor kid all over the [expletive] world,” Cousy told Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe. “The Olympics have gotten that big. Everyone’s going to think that there’s something wrong this this kid.

“Somebody from Boston should stand up for this kid. In my judgment, this is going out of your way to embarrass one of your players.”

Cousy added that Tatum has received a number of accolades recently after leading the Celtics to an NBA title, and is regarded as a top-five global talent. He questioned why Kerr could not even find a few minutes to put Tatum in either game, and chalked it up to anti-Celtics bias on the coach’s part.

“Tatum is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this month. Any experts that I’ve read lately have chosen him in the top five, and sometimes No. 1 in the [expletive] world,” Cousy argued. “Now Kerr is telling the world that he doesn’t agree. In a 40-minute game, if you can’t find five minutes to play somebody on the team without hurting yourself … When Kerr did it last week, he was in no danger of losing the game, but in this case they got down by 17 points and he’s got to worry about losing the game. And then to not let Tatum get off the bench — to me, there’s got to be some kind of bias that he’s got against the Celtics. He’s not alone there.”

One can certainly be critical of Kerr for not using Tatum more, but Cousy’s accusations of bias don’t really hold up to scrutiny. For one, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, who also play for the Celtics, are averaging roughly 19 and 16 minutes per game at the Olympics, so Kerr has no problem playing them. The other issue is that other star players have received the same treatment as Tatum at times, most notably Joel Embiid, who gets more run against opponents with talented big men. That is why he, not Tatum, was the preferred option against Serbia on Thursday.

Kerr is running a 10-man rotation, and as he has said previously, that means some players are going to be left out of certain games. One can certainly disagree whether Tatum should be one of them, but it clearly isn’t personal.