BOSTON — As expected, Celtics fans had plenty of boos and jeers for Golden State coach Steve Kerr during pregame introductions ahead of Wednesday‘s game at TD Garden. As a bonus, Draymond Green also got some boos as he became Boston’s public enemy during the 2022 NBA Finals.
Kerr benched Celtics star Jayson Tatum for a pair of games during the Paris Olympics, which caused some controversy despite the gold medal run. So with the Warriors in town, it was the first time C’s fans could make their thoughts heard for Kerr.
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During pregame media availability, Kerr broke down some of his thoughts about benching Tatum and the media coverage that came with it.
“We can’t control the story,” Kerr said. “So that’s this job. I tell our players all the time, the NBA is incredibly popular, and the reason it’s so lucrative and a part of the deal is you’re gonna be in the story. So that can be tough.
“But from the beginning in Vegas the whole thing was we’re in this together. We’ve got 12 Hall of Famers and we’re just committed to winning, and we won a gold medal. So I don’t give it a whole lot of thought other than that I didn’t enjoy not playing Jayson against Serbia, not playing Joel (Embiid) against South Sudan. Those are not fun decisions.”
Here’s a look at how pregame intros went down: