Team USA head coach benched Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum in their first game of Olympic play—a move that made waves across the basketball world. He sat out the entire night just to get placed into the starting lineup the following game. Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green is not happy with the choice.
During a recent episode of his podcast, Green unleashed a massive rant about Kerr’s decision to bench Tatum in the Olympic opener. He listed all of Tatum’s accomplishments from the last few months behind a point-blank statement: “You don’t not play Jayson Tatum.” (H/t Conor Roche of Boston.com)
“That man just won an NBA championship, he’s on the cover of NBA 2K, on the cover of Sports Illustrated, saying ‘Cheers,’ and just signed the biggest contract in NBA history,” Green continued. “Oh, and by the way, your reward is to sit down and don’t play in the first Olympic game.”
Draymond Green unuleashes furious rant about Steve Kerr benching Jayson Tatum
But that’s not where Green left things. Instead, he made an accusation. He concocted a theory that Team USA is now covering up benching Tatum because they know they made a mistake.
By benching Joel Embiid in the next game and having Jrue Holiday sit out with an ankle issue in the one after that, they were simply finding a way to make sure at least one player didn’t play.
Green is not a fan of that game plan. (H/t Kristen Wong of Sports Illustrated)
“Not playing was wrong,” Green said. “We all know it was wrong. He should’ve played. He didn’t… What I don’t like about it is, now, to me, it feels like a covering my tracks, proving a point type of thing to where, oh, now Joel is out of the lineup. And then today, Jrue didn’t play… From the outside looking in, it comes off as, ‘We made a mistake as a coaching staff.’”
Accusing the Team USA staff of doing something like that is completely out of pocket and wholly outlandish—which makes perfect sense for Green, who has never backed away from voicing any of his opinions.
The wildest twist of the conversation is that Green was willing to air out his insane feelings about his own coach so publicly. Obviously, he’s been fine with being unabashedly himself his entire career, but seeing it in real-time is always interesting.
Whether or not Team USA is currently trying to cover up the mistake of benching Tatum, the Celtics star is back out on the court, and his double-double against Puerto Rico is a solid way to ensure that he stays there.