The United States won its fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal with a hard-fought victory over France on Saturday and star guard Tyrese Haliburton had jokes to accompany the achievement.
Haliburton burst onto the scene and became one of the NBA’s top point guards last season. He earned his second straight All-Star nod and helped lead his Pacers team to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a decade.
Haliburton parlayed that success into a spot on Team USA for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but when you’re on a roster full of future Hall of Famers, playing time isn’t guaranteed, no matter how good you are.
Haliburton was the player out of the rotation in three of the six matches the United States played on its way to winning gold.
After collecting his medal, the star point guard was able to laugh at himself a little in a social media post.
Tyrese Haliburton’s tweet about the gold medal
Shortly after the gold medal ceremony, Haliburton addressed X and posted a photo of himself smiling with his gold medal.
The caption was self-aware and funny, and garnered more than three million views in half an hour.
“When you do nothing on the group project and still get an A,” she wrote along with the gold medal emoji.
When you do nothing on the group project and still get an A? image.twitter.com/xpshYZhMyA
— Tyrese Haliburton (@TyHaliburton22) August 10, 2024
Haliburton was making fun of the fact that he didn’t play at all in three of the U.S.’s six games at the Olympics, including the gold medal match.
His best game was against South Sudan in the group stage, where he played eight minutes and scored six points and added one assist.
He played 10 minutes against Puerto Rico and recorded a steal, but did not score. His last appearance was against Brazil in the quarterfinals, where he finished with two points and an assist in eight minutes.
However, Haliburton could still be seen cheering from the sidelines with a big smile on his face whenever the camera panned to the bench. He had some viral reactions to highlight plays by his future Hall of Fame teammates and never seemed displeased with being part of an all-time great team.
Even if his statistical impact wasn’t what we’re used to seeing at the NBA level, Haliburton will always be able to call himself a gold medal Olympian.
