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Besides the scandalous reaction from Celtics fans over Jayson Tatum's little Olympic Games participation, another NBA star who barely played was Tyrese Haliburton. The Indiana Pacers star had a tremendous last season and that earned him being considered for the Olympic USA Basketball Men's Team. He only played in three games and he never scored more than 6 points in any of them. Against South Sudan, he played 8 minutes. He elevated his playing time against Puerto Rico with 10 minutes and he played only 8 minutes against Brazil. Haliburton didn't participate in any of the other games. Despite his lack of playing time, Haliburton quickly understood he probably wouldn't play as much. He understood his place on this team.
Haliburton's take on low playing time at the Olympics
To be fair, Jayson Tatum seemed just as happy as the rest of the NBA stars during the celebrations and he did play a few minutes in the final. Unlike Tyrese Haliburton, who didn't play a single minute. Against France, Tatum did not have the best performance with only 11 minutes played, 2 points, and 3 rebounds. What made the comparisons explode between the two is the social media reaction Haliburton got after the game. He wrote a classic joke that everybody can relate to. This is what he posted alongside his photo holding the Gold Medal with a wide smile on his face. He writes: "When you ain't do nun on the group project and still get an A."
It is important to also note the contrast of Jayson Tatum's stats during the 2024 and the 2020 Oympics. In both tournaments, he won the Gold Medal but he was far more important during the Tokyo event. During the contest that was delayed until 2021 due to the global pandemic, Jayson Tatum averaged 15.2 points per game and the second on the scoring sheet overall, just behind Kevin Durant. This is probably the main reason Jayson Tatum felt left out of these Olympic Games, he was coming with the great history of his previous performance. At the end of the day, he still won the gold and he is the reigning NBA champion. Not a bad year for Tatum.