Boston Celtics Legend Criticizes Steve Kerr's 'Bias' Against Jayson Tatum

Despite the fact that he's widely considered one of the best players in the NBA, Jayson Tatum has played sparingly in Team USA's run to the Olympic championship game.

Tatum didn't take the court for a single minute in Thursday's come-from-behind victory over Serbia, marking the second game he's notched zero minutes in this year's Olympics.

Head coach Steve Kerr is facing some serious backlash from NBA fans for this lineup decision — specifically from Boston Celtics fans.

Celtics legend Bob Cousy is not happy with Tatum's lack of playing time. During a recent interview with the Boston Globe , Cousy railed against Kerr for his "bias" against Tatum and the Celtics organization.

“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," the 96-year-old basketball legend said. "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.”

Tatum just led the Celtics to an NBA championship, carrying some strong momentum into this summer's Olympic campaign. He also played an integral role on the Team USA squad that claimed gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Kerr justified his decision to leave Tatum on the bench after Team USA's comeback win.

“It’s not what I’m not seeing from Jayson; it’s what I’ve seen from the other guys.. It’s just hard to play 11 people, even in an NBA game...It's a math problem more than anything," Kerr said.

“Our second unit was not great last night, but that group has been one of the bright spots on this team, especially on the defensive end. So it’s not about what Jayson is doing or not doing. It’s just about combinations and the way that group has played together, the way Kevin [Durant] has filled in since he came back from his injury. It’s just a math problem more than anything.”

Team USA trailed by as many as 17 points in Thursday's semifinal win over Nikola Jokic and Serbia. Kerr's Golden State point guard Steph Curry led the way with a masterful performance, scoring 36 points on 9/14 shooting from behind the three-point arc.

The United States will tipoff against Victor Wembanyama and home-country France in the gold medal game at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.

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