Team USA Basketball’s head coach, Steve Kerr, made headlines recently by benching Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum during their 110-84 victory over Serbia on Sunday. The decision to keep him off the floor for their first game came with a lot of criticism, especially with the team winning in a 26-point blowout.
However, with FIBA games being only 40 minutes long, a matchup against a Serbian team — led by NBA MVP Nikola Jokic — that relies heavily on their bigs, and a full arsenal of NBA superstars at their disposal, Kerr and his coaching staff decided Tatum was unfortunately the odd man out.