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Ex-Warriors All-Star Bashes Steve Kerr for Prioritizing Austin Reaves Over Anthony Edwards in a Failed FIBA World Cup Campaign

Published 01/03/2024, 1:03 PM EST

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The FIBA World Cup was a revelation for Team USA. Track and field athlete Noah Lyles’ words “World Champion of what?” came back to haunt the entire NBA world when Team USA lost to Germany in the semi-finals. Even though the roster didn’t have any big names like LeBron James or Stephen Curry, it was a huge disappointment all across the board.

Youngsters like Anthony Edwards and Austin Reaves were the front runners in the World Cup but weren’t enough to win. In a recent podcast, Ex- the Warriors all-star points the blame towards the coach of Team USA Steve Kerr.

DeMarcus Cousins passes a scathing analysis of Steve Kerr

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In the most recent episode of ‘Bully Ball’ DeMarcus Cousins and co-host Rachel Nichols and Cousins end up discussing the current slump the Warriors are going through. During the course of the conversation, the four-time all-star stresses that it was Kerr’s fault that Team USA failed at the FIBA World Cup. Nichols asked, “You think that with the B team, they should have beaten the rest of the world?” To this, the Boogie replied, “Absolutely, there’s no excuse for it. Like we’ve seen this time and time again, we haven’t always gone to these tournaments with the best players in the league, and we’ve still been successful. So why all of a sudden now is it the players’ fault?”

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Nichols asks him again whether he thinks that Team USA should have won with Austin Reaves leading the charge. Cousins concludes by saying, “That’s the problem. Austin Reaves shouldn’t have been the focal point of the Team USA team. It should have been Anthony Edward. That’s the point, right? And it’s one common denominator that made that an okay thing, and that’s Steve Kerr.”

Although both players tried their best for their team, it is worth analyzing both the players at the FIBA World Cup to better understand DeMarcus Cousins’ point.

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Austin Reaves vs. Anthony Edwards at the FIBA World Cup

While Austin Reaves led the team, he had an average of 13.8 points, 2.4 assists. On the other hand, Anthony Edwards had led Team USA in points per game with 18.9 and had an average of 2.8 assists a game.

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It’s almost impossible to predict if the ‘focal point’ being Antman would have helped Team USA more. However, purely by statistics of the tournament, it isn’t tough to decipher who the better player was in the World Cup. What are your thoughts on Steve Kerr? Do you think he is to blame? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

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Written by:

Akashdeep Banerjee

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Akashdeep Banerjee is an NBA writer at Essentially Sports. After Graduating in Journalism and Mass Communication he forayed into visual Media. A fan of the NBA for the better part of a decade.
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