Celtics

Kendrick Perkins calls out Steve Kerr for benching Jayson Tatum in Olympics opener

"No way in hell are you going to tell me that Jayson Tatum wasn’t embarrassed.”

By Conor Ryan

July 30, 2024

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Kendrick Perkins isn’t exactly a popular figure with the Celtics these days.

The former 2008 NBA champion was declared as a persona non grata by former teammate Brian Scalabrine last month — due in large part to the current ESPN personality’s penchant for tossing out outlandish and overly harsh takes against Joe Mazzulla, Jayson Tatum, and several other key figures on the current Celtics team. 

But even with Perkins’ history of taking contrarian stances and doling out hot takes against the Celtics, even he couldn’t help but take the side of Celtics fans outraged over Tatum getting stapled to the bench in Team USA’s opening win over Serbia during the 2024 Summer Olympics. 

Despite Tatum establishing himself as one of the top players in the NBA for years now, the 2024 NBA Champion (and 2020 Olympic Gold Medalist) was one of the few odd men out from minutes during Sunday’s win over Serbia — with Tatum not playing for the entire game alongside Tyrese Haliburton.

Speaking on ESPN’s “First Take” on Monday, Perkins called out Team USA head coach Steve Kerr for putting Tatum in a bad spot Sunday. Even if Kerr stressed that the desire to get Kevin Durant more reps and other matchups prompted Tatum to sit on the bench against Serbia, Perkins said that the optics of Kerr’s decision still put Tatum in a bad light.

“You do not disrespect him and embarrass him the way that you did,” Perkins said on ESPN. “We live in the world of social media. We can’t run from it, you can’t hide from it. No way in hell are you going to tell me that Jayson Tatum wasn’t embarrassed.”

Even though Tatum’s role might have been limited with Durant getting the green light to play after missing all five of Team USA’s exhibition games, Perkins stressed that Tatum’s size, defensive game, and versatility makes him a player who can impact the game in a variety of ways — making his benching more puzzling when weighed against other players who may not boast such a varied skillset. 

“When you talk about a guy like Jayson Tatum, he’s not nailed down to one position,” Perkins added. “Jayson Tatum is a versatile player. … Whatever you want him to play, he’s 6-9 with a versatile package on both ends of the floor. The last time Team USA won the gold, Kevin Durant was the best player. You know who was the second-best player? It was Jayson Tatum.”

Perkins was far from the only ESPN personality to take umbrage with Kerr’s decision to sit Tatum for all of Sunday’s victory. 

“Steve Kerr, that’s some straight (expletive),” Stephen A. Smith said in a video posted to his X account. “You got to be kidding me. 

“Oh, these people are getting on my damn nerves and to have (Tatum) go through and entire NBA season and then go through the playoffs and capture a championship and still take his offseason to join Team USA and to have a champion riding the bench like he’s some waterboy — you gotta be kidding me. Really hard in a 40-minute game to play more than 10 guys? It’s Team USA. Zero?”

For what it’s worth, Kerr did acknowledge earlier this week that he plans to play Tatum during Team USA’s next matchup against South Sudan on Wednesday. 

“For sure 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,” Kerr told reporters on Monday.

“On the one hand, it makes no sense at all,” Kerr added. “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. I felt like [Sunday] night those were the combinations that made the most sense. Jayson will play [Wednesday].”