Kendrick Perkins criticizes Steve Kerr for benching Jayson Tatum in Olympic opener

While Team USA opened group play in the 2024 Paris Olympics with a 26-point win over Serbia, one of the biggest talking points after the win was the fact that Jayson Tatum didn’t play a minute. That decision falls on Steve Kerr as the head coach according to Kendrick Perkins.

Perkins shared his reaction and broke down his thoughts on that choice regarding Tatum on Monday during ‘First Take’. It made no sense to him why Tatum didn’t see the floor considering his versatility in any lineup, which should cancel out any concerns about his ability to fit. Actually, as a reference, he called back to recent history for the United States with what Tatum did just three years ago in the Tokyo Olympics.

“It’s a positionless sport when you talk about the game of basketball. When you talk about a guy like Jayson Tatum, he’s not nailed down to one position. Jayson Tatum is a versatile player. Meaning, if you want him to play the point, he could play the point. If you want him to play the two, he can play the two. If you want him to play the wing, the three, the four, the five? Whatever you want him to play,” said Perkins. “He’s 6’9 with a versatile package on both ends of the floor.”

“Jayson Tatum, the last time that Team USA won the gold? Kevin Durant was the best player. You know who was the second-best player? It was Jayson Tatum!” Perkins stated.

This is Tatum’s sixth time representing the United States in his basketball career. That includes this being his third time as a pro and his second outing at the Olympics. In the 2020 Olympics that happened a year later due to the pandemic, he was the second-leading scorer behind Durant after averaging 15.2 points on 49.3% shooting overall and 44.7% from three in his six games off the bench.

However, coming off his first championship and becoming the league’s highest-paid player over the past month or so, Tatum didn’t play a minute for Team USA in the 110-84 win on Sunday.

Team USA always has a tough time balancing their talent with how stacked their roster is with all-time names. However, the choice put Tatum in an awkward spot, especially with the reaction to it on social media. It also didn’t help that two of Tatum’s teammates on the Celtics, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, saw minutes against the Serbians.

That’s why Perkins criticized Kerr for creating that narrative against Tatum when he thinks he clearly could have found a way to play him.

“My thing is, if you’re Steve Kerr? And Steve Kerr called out all his accolades of what this man has accomplished. You know what Jayson Tatum is going to bring to the table. You do not disrespect him and embarrass him the way that you did,” said Perkins. “In this world today, we live in a world of social media. We can’t run from it, we can’t hide from it. It’s right there in front of our face. No way in hell you’re going to tell me that Jayson Tatum wasn’t embarrassed of looking at social media or hearing about it.”

“At the end of the day? Yes, we should be talking more about Kevin Durant. Yes, we should be talking more about LeBron James after what they did last night. But you know what was the real topic of the game? Jayson Tatum with a DNP,” Perkins said.

Kerr has already said that Tatum will appear in the United States’ next game against South Sudan on Wednesday. That now leaves it up to him to put the story to rest with how he comes out and plays in response later this week.