Tyrese Haliburton jokes about riding bench for Team USA Olyympic gold

Tyrese Haliburton is just happy to be here.

After the U.S. men’s basketball team clinched its fifth consecutive gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics with a 98-87 win over the host country France at Bercy Arena on Saturday, Haliburton turned to Twitter to celebrate his first career Olympic medal. He made light of his limited playing time in the process.

“When you ain’t do nun on the group project and still get an A,” Haliburton captioned a photo of himself showing off his Olympic gold medal.

With a loaded roster featuring NBA champions and MVPs, including veterans LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, the Indiana Pacers star often found himself outside of the rotation. Haliburton didn’t log any minutes in Team USA’s gold medal game victory on Saturday or the semifinal win against Serbia on Thursday.

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The Paris Games marked the first for Haliburton, who is coming off an Eastern Conference Finals appearance and All-NBA Third Team selection with the Pacers. Haliburton made appearances in three of Team USA’s six Olympic Games in Paris, totaling 26 minutes overall.

Although Haliburton’s time on the court was limited, the 2028 Los Angeles Games could be a different story. Haliburton could potentially have a larger role on the 2028 Olympic team as the veterans pass the torch to the up-and-coming stars when the Games come back stateside in Los Angeles.

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