The Warriors might not be the perennial NBA Finals contender they once were, but coach Steve Kerr still is drawing the ire of the league's opposing fans.
Kerr, who coached Team USA to a gold medal victory at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, came under fire this summer for his usage, or lack thereof, of Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum on the superstar-laden team.
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Tatum received two DNP-CDs (did not play due to coach's decision) throughout the tournament while sometimes playing sparingly in games. Celtics fans were not happy about Tatum's role in Kerr's rotations, even though Tatum himself opted to take the high road when asked about his role.
Fast forward to opening night of the 2024-25 NBA season, and the Kerr-Tatum Olympics discourse resurfaced once again after the Celtics star scored 37 points on 14-of-18 shooting from the field and an eye-popping 8 of 11 from 3-point range, with four rebounds and 10 assists in Boston's 132-109 demolition of the New York Knicks on Tuesday at TD Garden.
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NBA fans took to social media, where they, sarcastically, blamed Kerr for fueling Tatum's monster game and the team's potential success to follow this season.
Knicks fans when they see Steve Kerr pic.twitter.com/Eu1OBTlOKi
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) October 23, 2024
Steve Kerr created a monster pic.twitter.com/Bjl3svcV6w
— Overtime (@overtime) October 23, 2024
NBA
Thank you Steve Kerr!
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) October 23, 2024
Stephen A Smith hammering Steve Kerr and telling people the truth:
— Savage (@SavageSports_) October 23, 2024
🎥: @espn, @awfulannouncing
“What Steve Kerr did to Jayson Tatum in the Olympics is egregious. You don't go up to a first-team All-NBA player over the last three years who just won a championship a month… pic.twitter.com/M6Bf4Nxxeh
Because of Steve Kerr’s great sins the entire NBA must burn
— Immortan Joe Mazzulla (@Handsome_Jake_) October 23, 2024
Steve Kerr may be responsible for the Celtics going back to back pic.twitter.com/SPw8q9sR44
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) October 23, 2024
Tatum is seeing Steve Kerr’s face on whoever guards him
— kyle (@knicks_tape99) October 22, 2024
“The rest of the league, you can thank Steve Kerr for what Jayson Tatum is about to do to you.” 👀 @KendrickPerkins agrees with @stephenasmithon how Steve Kerr coached Jayson Tatum in the Olympics. pic.twitter.com/9WMkHvHMA0
— First Take (@FirstTake) October 23, 2024
Thank you Steve Kerr.
— 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒏’𝒔 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒓 (@Tatums0Burner) October 23, 2024
Thank you ESPN.
Thank you Olympics.
Thank you Journalists.
Thank you NBA Twitter.
You have woken the monster… pic.twitter.com/s1raGkr4Cb
