Steve Kerr BENCHING Jayson Tatum WAS RIDICULOUS

Steve Kerr's decision to bench Jayson Tatum was ridiculous for many reasons.

“You do not disrespect him and embarrass him the way that you did,” Kendrick 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.”

“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 not the only ESPN personality to disagree 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?”