As if the drama surrounding Jayson Tatum's playing time for Team USA under head coach Steve Kerr couldn't get any worse at the Paris Olympics.
For the second time in five games, Tatum did not step on the court despite being fully healthy for the U.S. Both of these absences happened against Serbia, coincidentally.
Regardless, the lack of minutes for the Boston Celtics superstar has carried a huge question mark over the squad's usage of him. Those doubts inflated even more when Team USA struggled throughout most of the semifinal against the Serbs until they staged a remarkable fourth-quarter comeback to win 95-91.
This ultimately brought NBA fans up in arms on social media, critical of Steve Kerr for not utilizing him enough and putting him in the game against Serbia to better manage the downs the team went through early on.
One of those fans was Tatum's own mother, Brandy Cole. While she didn't publicly post from her own account, she retweeted a post from Barstool Sports' Dan Greenberg.
Not a good look for the legendary coach to get backlash not just from fans, but from Tatum's mother as well. Luckily for Kerr, it didn't cost him the opportunity to compete for gold as Team USA will take on hosts France on Saturday.
Team USA better hope that Tatum remains poised heading into the gold medal game and garner some playing time. Otherwise, these earlier decisions to not use him enough may come back to haunt them.
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