Steve Kerr Explains Why Jayson Tatum Didn’t Play Against Serbia At Olympics

Amid the United States’ dramatic comeback in the Olympic semifinal against Serbia on Thursday, NBA champion Jayson Tatum once again remained on the bench.

Tatum, the 26-year-old Celtics superstar, played zero minutes in the 95-91 victory that advanced the Americans to Saturday’s gold medal game against host France.

Lack of playing time has been a curious theme of Tatum’s 2024 Olympic experience. He also didn’t play in the United States’ group-stage win over Serbia and was the 11th player off the bench in other games.

His absence was conspicuous, drawing comments from NBA rivals as well as his mother, who took to Twitter to express her displeasure with Team USA head coach Steve Kerr’s lineup choices.

Kerr, the longtime head coach of the Golden State Warriors when he’s not coaching the U.S. national team, spoke during the Olympic run about the challenges of balancing such a talented team.

On Friday, he reiterated to reporters that Tatum’s lack of minutes had nothing to do with the player in question, and instead reflected a broader strategy.

“It’s not what I don’t see in Jayson, it’s what I’ve seen in the other guys,” Kerr explained, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe“As I’ve said many times throughout this tournament and the last six weeks, it’s just tough to play against 11 people, even in an NBA game.”

International rules differ from the NBA in several ways, including the length of play. While an NBA game lasts 48 minutes, Olympic basketball games last only 40 minutes.

As a result, the already limited number of minutes to be distributed among the constellation of American superstars is further reduced.

Kerr also defended his choice of substitutes, none of which included Tatum. Anthony Edwards and Derrick White (Tatum’s teammate in Boston) played a combined 20 minutes as substitutes, scoring just two points between them (Edwards).

“Our second unit wasn’t great last night, but that group has been one of the bright spots on this team, especially on defense,” Kerr said.

“It’s not a matter of what Jayson does or doesn’t do,” he added. “It’s just a matter of combinations and how the group played together, the way Kevin [Durant] “He’s taken his place since his return from injury. It’s more of a math problem than anything else.”

The gold medal game against France will begin Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET, with Tatum hoping to get a chance to contribute to what could potentially be his second straight gold medal.