Why was Tatum benched again?
Steve Kerr benched Jayson Tatum against Serbia once again, and Mego is getting ticked off.
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00:00I second all of that from Charles Barkley. That was Charles Barkley, I believe, earlier today.
00:06Rip that from ESPN. And talking about how Steve Kerr has mismanaged USA basketball,
00:13particularly against Serbia. I don't know. It's like, for some reason,
00:18Serbia is Jason Tatum's kryptonite, and he can't even rip off his warmups and touch the court
00:24when they're out there. Because the scrubs who play in some Moscow league are gonna just like
00:31break up. I mean, I don't get it. I know Tyrese Halliburton was a DNP in that game too.
00:37But it's just galling when you're watching them play and it's a 95 91 like, barely get by
00:45Serbia in the semifinals, you should be rolling over these teams.
00:50It's kind of amazing to me, we spent the first one, almost two hours of the show,
00:55talking quite a bit about how Drake may should have played more last night.
00:59He still played a lot more than Jason Tatum did for the Olympic team. I mean, it's nuts to me.
01:03And just look at it. He's better player than Tyrese Halliburton. He's a better player than
01:09Devin Booker. He's a better player than you could be. He's a better player than Anthony Davis. And
01:14I know it's a different position, but like they're putting these guys, he's a better player than
01:18Derek White. He's a better player than Drew Holliday. And how about all the threes that
01:22Serbia was hitting yesterday? You know what would have been great to do, Meggo? Have a defense that
01:26you could switch everyone and play a bunch of men. You know who can do that at all five positions?
01:30Any Celtic?
01:32Jason Tatum. But yes, Jason Tatum. I mean, they build their defensive structure off switching.
01:37If there's going to be a guy that can do it, it's Tatum and for Kerr to sit him down. I mean,
01:43I didn't even agree with him sitting Halliburton the whole time, but like to sit down Tatum,
01:47three years in a row, first team, all NBA, who, by the way, when he's played in the Olympics
01:51has played well, played well in the NBA finals.
01:54He was the second leading scorer on the last gold medal team four years ago.
01:59Played well in the NBA finals right before this. And yet you're not going to play him at all. Like
02:05it just, and you're down 17 and you're not the, Oh, maybe I'll go to this guy. So we'll get a
02:11spark of some sort and we'll play better defensively to come back from a 17 point deficit. I mean,
02:15Kerr is very lucky. They won that game yesterday because we're talking about Tatum.
02:21A lot of people are talking about Tatum. If they had lost that game,
02:25everybody in the basketball world would be talking about current Tatum.
02:28I think they're already talking about it again. Look, it was a huge headline. The first game
02:32when he DNP Tatum, and now he does it again. The first time he says he feels like an idiot,
02:38but now he just looks stubborn. Like he doubled down on this lineup that he's rolling out there.
02:43And it's just the classic Steve Kerr of Stephen Curry saved his butt again.
02:48He really, that's really what happened last night. He really believes this because you could
02:53talk me into mega when he sat that first game, maybe it's some subtle punishment. Cause he was
02:58a couple of days later in Vegas and everyone else, maybe they felt he needed a little extra rest
03:03because of the long NBA finals and the travel and all that. Like you maybe could have talked me into
03:08that, but now for him to do it a second time against the same opponent, he really believes
03:13this is fine and it's okay for team USA. Like, and maybe you could say, Oh, he doesn't like Tatum.
03:19There's some anti Celtics bias. And who knows? Maybe there is a little bit of that, but just
03:23pick out this specific opponent and say, I'm not going to play Tatum not once, but twice,
03:28including in a game you're down by 17. It tells me he really believes that was the best approach.
03:35And I think it's nuts. I think it's a hundred percent wrong. And I think it showed itself
03:39that he got bailed out by Kevin Durant, LeBron James at the end of that game.
03:44And Steph Curry through the first half or so, like he really believed that was the right
03:48thing to do. And even when evidence was clear, you're down by 17, you're down at halftime,
03:53you're down entering the fourth quarter that it was the wrong thing. He just never moved away from
03:58here. Steve Kerr, uh, talking to the media after that narrow win over Serbia.
04:04It's an interesting, uh, um, you know, position to be in when you have so much
04:10talent at your disposal, it's, it's an incredible luxury and it's also difficult, um, you know,
04:17for decision-making, but, um, those were the guys we went to. We really haven't been in this
04:22position yet where, you know, we kind of, um, had to find, um, a lineup down the stretch and,
04:29you know, the guys, they determined the lineup really. I mean, you know, they were playing,
04:35uh, they were individually and collectively, they were playing the best that we had played
04:40all night. And so we just stayed with them. I know he's talking about game specific there,
04:45like why, you know, he hasn't beat out there at different points, but the guys determined the
04:49lineup. That's a pretty big slap in the face to Jason Tatum, in my opinion, let's go to the phones.
04:56Let's go to two, please. Let's go to Greg in Rhode Island. Greg, you want to talk about Jason
05:02Tatum? Yeah. Um, first of all, I do disagree with the, that he should play over Derek White because
05:09Derek White is a phenomenal role player. He gives you the defense, he facilitates. So I think Derek
05:14White definitely needs to be out there. I don't think Devin Booker needs to be out there though.
05:18Devin Booker, he doesn't give you anything defensively and offensively. He can't do
05:24anything that Tatum does better. Like Tatum's just better offensively. He's bigger, he's more
05:30physical. He fits that Olympic style play. If you're going to DMP anyone, it should be Booker.
05:37Great. Thank you, Greg. You know what, at this point, like, okay, I'm personally bothered because
05:42Jason Tatum is the star player on the Celtics. And I think that he deserves to be out there,
05:48but in a bigger picture perspective, I'm just bothered by Kerr at this point,
05:53the way that he's treating this lineup is just so obnoxious. It's like, he really thinks,
05:59he really thinks that he's exercising so much influence over the game by saying like, oh no,
06:06only 10 guys can play. It's a, it's a 40 minute game. And it's so different, the international
06:11game versus what you'd see in the NBA. And it's like, dude, this has never been an issue before.
06:18You're the only guy that is making this an issue. And you're probably making it tougher
06:22for your team with the chemistry among the players, be it Jason Tatum or Joel Embiid,
06:26who both have handled this pretty well game to game when they've been DNP'd.
06:32Like you're complicating this. You have the best players in the world, other than Jokic.
06:37And Jokic wasn't even the guy who was the leading scorer for much of the game yesterday. Like you're
06:43making it harder than it has to be Steve Kerr. And you look like a jerk while you're doing it.
06:48Like USA basketball, I don't know. They're just shooting themselves in the foot in this entire
06:53Olympic process, in my opinion. And it's one thing to say, oh, I can't play everybody. I can't play
06:5811 guys. You're going to really sit there and believably say Jason Tatum's not one of the best
07:0610 guys. Like if you want to tell me, hey, Tyrese Halliburton was that 11th guy. Devin Booker was
07:12that 11th guy. Even on maybe a night or two, Drew Holliday was that 11th guy. So, oh, okay.
07:18Right. I can buy that. And I know to the caller's point, Derek White and Drew Holliday. So the role
07:22is a little bit different, especially from the guard position. I get it. But you cannot
07:27seriously tell anyone that watches basketball that Jason Tatum is not one of the best 10 guys
07:33on Team USA. He's one of the best 10 players in the entire planet earth, let alone on Team USA.
07:39It's just nuts to me. They make a big show about bringing Kevin Durant off the bench.
07:45Jason Tatum over the past year, and Durant was great last year. I mean, you can make the case
07:50Tatum is just as good, if not better than him over the last couple of years, especially what we saw
07:53in that play. Yeah. Especially when they're head to head. He showed himself that a couple years
07:57ago in the playoffs against the Nets. 617-779-7937. If you want to weigh in on your feelings about
08:04Jason Tatum getting benched in another Olympic game, they compete for the gold medal on Saturday
08:11against France. I believe that game's at about 330.