Kendrick Perkins blast Charles Barkley for 'asinine' Jayson Tatum Team USA comments

Kendrick Perkins has criticized Charles Barkley's "asinine" assessment of Team USA's nail-biting Olympic semifinal win over Serbia. As the USA staged a comeback from 17 points down at Bercy Arena, Steph Curry shone with a pivotal display , tipping the scales in America's favor to lead them into the final against host nation France on Saturday.

Curry impressed with a total of 36 points and a critical three-pointer that swung the game for the USA, securing a narrow 95-91 win. Despite their victory, NBA legend and vocal analyst Barkley expressed displeasure about the USA's close call on ESPN Radio on Friday , claiming that the team's wealth of talent should negate tight contests on the international stage, whilst lamenting Jayson Tatum's underutilization by coach Steve Kerr.

"They shouldn't be tested," claimed Barkley. "They should win. They got the best team. They haven't used their depth the right way. Because the one advantage we had in '92 and they still have today is when they go to the bench, they're bringing in better players."

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He continued his critique by saying, "[Kerr] has not used this team properly. It should never be a debate on guys getting to play or not getting to play. Listen, putting Jayson Tatum in an NBA game, he's gonna be better than 99 percent of the guys already in the world, but especially guys coming from a foreign country. You just kind of keep your guys on a treadmill and keep them rolling around," reports the Mirror US .

Former NBA champion and "First Take" pundit Perkins sharply disagreed with Barkley's take on the national team's performance , mounting a vigorous defense of Golden State Warriors head coach Kerr. Perkins expressed his viewpoint vehemently: "Look, Charles Barkley is one of the greatest power forwards to ever play the game of basketball. One of the greatest players to ever touch the damn basketball," he declared. "And look, one of the greatest TV personalities ever."

Nevertheless, Perkins felt that Barkley's remarks about Team USA were entirely off-base: "But this was just an asinine way of talking about Team USA and what's been going on, as far as them representing our country. Look, this team has been balling. And they're gonna get battle-tested. The game has become global. You got Europeans, they're starting to catch - they have caught up with us."

Reflecting on the challenges faced by Team USA, Perkins observed: "When you think about who Team USA had to battle against yesterday, [Nikola] Jokic is the best player in basketball. They had to find a way to grind it out. They earned that win. That was the best game that I've seen in basketball in the last six or seven years, to be honest with you. The physicality was there. You had to get the best out of O.G.s".

He further acknowledged his previous misjudgment regarding Tatum's role: Perkins added that he has been proved wrong about the decision to use Tatum sparingly throughout the games despite his superstar-level performances en route to winning the NBA title last season.

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Perkins praised the Team USA coaching staff, saying: "I was told a couple of weeks ago when I started criticizing Steve Kerr for not playing Jayson Tatum 'It's fit over star'. At this point, Steve Kerr, Ty Lue, Erik Spoelstra and the rest of the coaching staff have done an outstanding job with Team USA and the rotations," and added, "The bench has been phenomenal, outside of yesterday's game. And so, when you think about what Steve Kerr and those guys have to battle, it's not about the name of the back of the jersey; it's the name on the front of the jersey."

He also noted, "And now, we, as our country is one win away from getting the gold medal. See, Steve Kerr is doing his damn thing right now."

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