NBA analyst Ronnie 2k agreed with Stephen A. Smith, who slammed Team USA’s head coach Steve Kerr for benching Jayson Tatum in the Paris Olympics. Tatum won the NBA championships with Boston Celtics in the previous season but he was given a limited role by Kerr at the Games.
Ronnie 2k feels Tatum has got the same rating as LeBron James and Steph Curry. Tatum played in four of the USA’s six games in Paris.
He didn’t play in the semifinal clash against Serbia, which the USA won by 95-91 while bouncing back in the fourth quarter. Tatum came off the bench in the first quarter in the gold medal match against France on Saturday and played for 11 minutes. The 26-year-old scored two points and three rebounds in his short appearance.
Stephen A. Smith earlier said on ESPN, “If there’s somebody who deserves to celebrate their gold medal the least, it would be Steve Kerr,” Smith said. “What he did to Jayson Tatum was unconscionable. And I understand that Tatum went to the gold medal game, and he started, and he didn’t look great. But we also know why. Because we know that Steve Kerr was messing with him. From the standpoint of not playing him.”
“Unbelievable,” Ronnie 2k said, agreeing with Stephen A Smith on the latter’s show. “The guy just won a championship, you know he’s ready to play for his country. He could have just taken the summer off.”
“We kind of put the cherry on top because he’s got the same rating as LeBron [James] and Steph [Curry],” Ronnie 2k added.
Boston Celtics will begin their NBA 2024-25 campaign against the New York Knicks on 22 October.
