by As coach of the U.S. team at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Steve Kerr had numerous lineup options, which led to some difficult rotation decisions.
On KNBR’s “Tolbert and Copes Show,” Kerr was asked how Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid and others handled his lineup decisions.
“I talked to the team before the first practice and we talked about it,” Kerr said. “The elephant in the room is that everyone here is going to be in the Hall of Fame at some point. So how do we figure out how we play, how we come together [lineup] combinations and I said, “I’m going to ask you all to just focus on winning and leave everything else aside, all the usual NBA nonsense.”
“The guys all handled it really well, the other players supported Jayson and Joel really well, but these are guys who are world-class players and nobody is used to seeing them play so few minutes. So it’s just a weird spectacle, I understand that.”
Kerr had assembled one of the strongest rosters of all time, eventually settling on a lineup of LeBron James, Steph Curry, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker and Jrue Holiday. Embiid eventually lost playing time to Kevin Durant, while Tatum was relegated to the bench and barely played.
Kerr’s lineup decisions were scrutinized throughout the Olympic tournament, but the end result is hard to dispute.
Thanks to the superhuman play of Curry, Durant and James, the U.S. team fended off spirited challenges from Serbia and France in the final two games to win the Olympic gold medal for the fifth consecutive year.
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