IN HIS FIRST CRISIS, STEVE KERR MUST AVOID “NBA B-S” WITH JAYSON TATUM
The champion and three-time member of the league’s first team didn’t play a minute Sunday, which forces Kerr to finagle egos — beg, maybe — and make sure he doesn’t anger a player and damage Team USA
Once blond with jumpshot-crazed eyes, Steve Kerr has gray hair and a wrinkled face. Sorry for the candor, but as he says, “It’s time, you know?” It’s time to win an American gold medal for the 17th time in Olympic men’s basketball competition, which might not happen in Paris with Victor Wembanyama grabbing the rim on his tiptoes, or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stirring Canada without drone surveillance.
His problem is, he’s aware of dark history. Kerr knows Larry Brown lost in Athens with a youthful LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. He recalls Brown saying, “I'm disappointed because I had a job to do as a coach, to get us to understand how we're supposed to play as a team and act as a team, and I don't think we did that.” He knows John Thompson lost in Seoul with Mitch Richmond, David Robinson and Danny Manning. He knows the 1972 team was gypped in Munich against the Soviet Union. He was on the bench as an assistant in Tokyo, when Gregg Popovich lost to France and almost lost in the title game.
But now, he has a group compared in “firepower” — LeBron’s pet word — with the Hall of Fame-powered Dream Team of the 1990s. He also is playing a planet that is so appreciably better that the NBA’s last U.S.-born MVP was James Harden six seasons ago. Kerr cannot lose, or he will be charred. His fist is clenched on the sideline, and though Kevin Durant’s return and James’ global purview temporarily calmed worries with a rout of Serbia, there is no certainty Kerr will win Aug. 10. Who knows how the Americans fare next against South Sudan after a 101-100 preseason scare?
So we’re watching closely to determine how he handles the first scent of what he calls — and I’m quoting — “NBA B-S.” That potentially happened when Jayson Tatum became yet another Boston superstar in the news, joining Jaylen Brown. Tatum didn’t play a second in a 26-point victory Sunday. When Kerr was asked firmly, he shot back Monday about a player who three times has been named to the All-NBA first team.
“Jayson will play. I’m not going to answer your next question, which is if he plays — who doesn’t? — but we’re going to need him and part of my job is to keep everybody engaged and ready because my experience with this is crazy stuff happens,” Kerr said.
As in: Tatum boils from lack of use after Brown, when Kawhi Leonard left the team, was upset when he wasn’t called. Team USA will need Tatum’s offensive skills and wing command to win a championship, especially if Durant faces more injury trouble. Yes, he will play and try to thwart the speed of South Sudan. But what if a player who wasn’t quite good enough to win MVP trophies in the Finals and Eastern Conference finals — Brown won both — begins to brood without proper playing time?
“The hardest part of this job is you’re sitting at least a couple of guys who are world-class, some of the very best players on Earth, and on the one hand it makes no sense at all,” Kerr said. “On the other, I’m asking these guys to just commit to winning one game and then move on to the next one. I have to do the same thing. And so I felt like (Sunday) night, those were the combinations that made the most sense.
“Every game is going to be different based on matchups. He’s a total pro. He’s first-team All-NBA three years in a row. I felt like an idiot not playing him, but in a 40-minute game, you can’t play more than 10 (players). You really can’t. I think he’s an amazing guy, great player and handled it beautifully and he’ll be back out there next game. The key, and our guys know this, is to put all the NBA stuff in the rearview mirror and just win six games. Jayson’s the ultimate pro and champion and he handled it well, and he’s going to be ready for the next one.”
In New England, it doesn’t seem fair that Kerr — who beat the Celtics for a ring in 2022 and still seeks league titles — knows knocking down the champions might cause internal dissension. He will deny this, wholeheartedly. But some will ask why league coaches and USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill, a part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, are making decisions that impact contenders. The answer: They want to win the damned gold medal. Last week, Hill appeared on Dan Patrick’s program and explained why he bypassed Brown for another Celtic, Derrick White. He said the call had nothing to do with Brown’s lack of business affiliation with Nike.
“I think this idea that there’s a conspiracy theory — I always love a good conspiracy theory — but it was really truly a basketball decision and these are tough decisions,” Hill said.
Replied Brown, on X: “grant hill calling me a conspiracy theorist is disappointing I’ve been a VP since I was 21 years old I have a great understanding.” In his third NBA season, he was named vice president of the NBA Players Association.
All will be forgotten if Kerr wins No. 17. His legacy was be reaffirmed as one of his generation’s great coaches. “It’s just go out and play and win,” he said. “The whole thing with this experience is, it’s six games. Each game is different. We’re going to need everybody. But we need everybody ready to roll and whatever it takes to win. That’s what we need to do.”
Will they do it? Watch Jayson Tatum on Wednesday. America needs his best.
He can leave behind the B-S, or questions will be asked about the coach.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.