Paris 2024 Olympics, Dream Team flies but Steve Kerr’s choices cause debate
For Dream Team two wins out of two, but no shortage of controversy
If in the last preparatory friendlies some people had advanced doubts about the tightness of the U.S. national basketball team composed of NBA stars, the first two games played by the Dream team in Paris 2024 have instead told the reality of a dominant team, which does not lack, however, some cause for embarrassment.
After the first game, won 110-84 last Sunday against Serbia, the cameras often lingered on the face of Jayson Tatum, fresh off an NBA title with the Boston Celtics but who remained on the bench for the full 40 effective minutes played by the U.S. against Nikola Jokic and co. Steve Kerr, in the postgame, had said he felt "an idiot" for having to exclude the 1998-class talent from the rotation.
The scene was è repeated again in the second game, won Wednesday night against South Sudan 103-86. This time Tatum was on the court, but there'è was another excellent exclusion: Joel Embiid. The Philadelphia 76ers long player, who chose the U.S. by forgoing a more than likely call-up by France, è was repeatedly caught on camera and certainly did not seem happy with his coach’s choice.
Kerr, therefore, had to explain to reporters why he decided to give up the'MVP of the 2022/23 NBA season: "We were playing against the fastest team in the entire tournament,” said the U.S. head coach, “we had to be quick in marking changes, to anticipate the opponents' intentions.
In front of U.S. reporters, Kerr then trieda to definitively extinguish the controversy: "Social media make everything more melodramatic,” he said, “but these guys are professionals and accept every choice, knowing that every game è different and requires different responses from me and them. I hope the players will not listen too much to this kind of controversy".
