The United States won its fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal with a nail-biting win over France on Saturday and star guard Tyrese Haliburton had jokes to go along with the hardware.
Haliburton burst onto the scene to become one of the best guards in the NBA this past season. He earned his second straight All-Star bid and helped lead his Pacers squad to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a decade.
Haliburton parlayed that success into a roster spot with Team USA for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but when you're on a roster filled with future Hall of Famers, playing time is not guaranteed, no matter how good you are.
Haliburton was the odd man out of the rotation in three of the six games the United States played en route to winning gold.
After he collected his medal, the star point guard was able to laugh at himself a bit in a social media post.
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Tyrese Haliburton's gold medal tweet
Shortly after the gold medal ceremony, Haliburton took to X and posted a picture of him smiling with his gold medal.
The caption was self-aware and hilarious, collecting over three million views in a half hour.
"When you ain't do nun on the group project and still get an A," he wrote along with the gold medal emoji.
When you ain’t do nun on the group project and still get an A🏅 pic.twitter.com/xpshYZhMyA
— Tyrese Haliburton (@TyHaliburton22) August 10, 2024
Haliburton was poking fun at the fact that he did not play at all in three of the United States' six games at the Olympics, including the gold medal match.
His best game came against South Sudan in the Group Stage, where he played eight minutes and scored six points to go with one assist.
He played 10 minutes against Puerto Rico and registered a steal but did not score. His final appearance came against Brazil in the quarterfinals, where he finished with two points and one assist in eight minutes.
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Haliburton could still be seen cheering from the sidelines with a big smile on his face any time the camera panned to the bench, though. He had a few viral reactions to highlight-reel plays from his future Hall of Fame teammates and never seemed displeased with being along for the ride on 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.
