Jayson will play against South Sudan, confirms Steve Kerr

USA head coach Steve Kerr has confirmed that NBA champion Jayson Tatum will play against South Sudan on Wednesday in the team’s second match of the ongoing Paris Olympics. Kerr had decided not to play Tatum in the opening game against Serbia, which they convincingly won by 110-84.

“Jayson will play [Wednesday],” Kerr said. “I’m not going to answer your next question, which is if he plays, who doesn’t. But we’re going to need him, and part of this job for me is to keep everybody engaged and ready, because my experience with this is crazy stuff happens.”

Kerr admitted that the hardest part of his job is to pick the world-class players and it sometimes becomes difficult when he has to leave someone out.

“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 said. “On one hand, it makes no sense at all. 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. And so I felt like last night those were the combinations that made the most sense.”

Meanwhile, Tatum averaged 6.7 points in Team USA’s five exhibition games. He played 16 minutes and scored nine points against South Sudan, which the USA narrowly won by 101-100 after LeBron James scored a three-point winner with eight seconds remaining.

The Bright Stars made 14 3-pointers in that game and thus playing Tatum will make sense as he can switch on wings.

“With South Sudan, it’s more about the speed, and speed is a killer,” Kerr said. “You have to be prepared for everything, and that means we need everybody.”