[Mind the Game] Tyrese Haliburton on his Team USA Olympic experience š
He really has the perfect mentality. He is not effected by being underrated or the tough moments of the game. Hope he turns back even better than before.
I fuckin love Hali lmao, he’s been one of my favorites ever since he came on JJ Redick’s pod back in the day and seemed like a top tier dude. Rooting for him always
Going from PG13 to this guy has been great as a Pacer fan. Heās so real, cool and fun as shit to watch. I hope heās a Pacer fo the rest of his career
Lol your flair saying this makes it 10x better and funnier. Hali city edition jersey is next on my to buy list!!
lol, I havenāt looked at my own flair in a minute. š¤£š¤£š¤£ Fuck Dipo for flirting with the Heat.
That 2017-18 Victor Oladipo though.
I know it’s 100% revisionism, but there was some chatter that GSW might grab him at #2 over Wiseman that year and I was kinda col with it. Honestly, if we ended up with a slightly worse pick, we would have been in a far better position because we likely just would have grabbed the dude and not thought about “bad value.”
What could have been QQ
The Warriors loved him but Hali was projected outside the top 10. I don’t think any team would take that gamble.
IIRC Warriors did try to trade down but couldn’t get any suitors.
This is definitely not true. You can google 2020 draft boards right now and Haliburton is almost always in the group of guys projected for the top half of the lottery. Peltonās stat projections ranked him 2, the ESPN mock draft had him going 5, Wasserman at Bleacher Report had him 6, Chad Ford had him in a grouped tier of guys ranked somewhere 4-11 behind Ant/Wiseman/Lamelo. Hollinger had him 4. Even KOC (then still at the ringer) had him at 9 and that dude ranked Killian Hayes as the best prospect in the draft.
The Warriors front office is great at media relations but they fucked up that draft and their best chance at extending Stephās prime.
You right, most I looked up had him at 6-9. Every single one had Wiseman over him though and almost always in the top 3.
IIRC Bob and Kerr were against the Wiseman pick but Lacob overruled them.
We could’ve grabbed LaMelo. We could’ve grabbed Hali. We could’ve grabbed anyone between Wiseman and Hali and it could’ve worked out better. But, it’s all hindsight. Even if we did grab them, they could’ve been rotting in Kerr’s doghouse for 4 years for all we know.
Stop with that.
It’s rookies THAT HAVE TERRIBLE BBIQ that do not play for Kerr. See Wiseman and Kuminga.
Rookies that actually understand 5v5 ball get lots of playing time. Podz, Post, Richard, etc.
Haliburton would’ve gotten minutes similar to Podz.
Yup, and I think if you break it down from the Warriors perspective, the reasoning is sound. The Warriors took the best available player at a major position of need, a player who also happened to be a consensus Top 3 prospect in that draft. It donāt think the Warriors made a bad pick, it just didnāt work out.
The Kuminga and Moody draft, however, and the way they have handcuffed every single players development by having Draymond Green on the team, is 100% on the Front Office. They needed to cut ties with him after ā22. Iām not even talking about his off the court stuff, his defense no longer outweighs the fact that he cant contribute on offense without being the primary ball handler has tanked our ability to field a proper roster. And now his ball handling and decision making have fallen off even further, is a tough watch these days.
Iām a casual and only really was put onto him at the Olympics even tho he wasnāt playing. Became a fan and never wished for a better comeback for a player from injury
I loved him after he wrote that article after being traded by the kings. It was very genuine, articulate, thoughtful. You could just tell he was a great dude.
And man. That run last year is as cold as it possibly gets for a single player. The gods were cruel with that one. A healthy hali in game 7 closes that shit out and caps quite possibly the best post season run of all time in my opinion. Simply magical. He has the respect of everyone forever.
Genuinely the sign of a person who is self assured and has enough belief in himself but also well adjusted enough that their ego wonāt be wounded by not playing if itās truly because of players better than him.Ā
Itās part of also what makes ant extremely disarming and likable. If you benched him for people who he knows are actually better than him, heāll be nothing but complimentary about the decision. Like delusional confident in himself while also crazy respectful and admires the more accomplished and talented players in the league.
TLDR- self awareness and knowing your lane are deeply likable qualities. Ā
I would prefer if he doesnāt turn back better than before
Better alongside AJ Dybantsa**
Did yāall move on from Mathurin already?
Doesnāt seem like he wants to be here long term and itās not a great skill fit for Carlisleās system
Tbh a lot of the top picks who could have an immediate impact would fit well in the Indiana chemistry
I would be cool if Haliburton was MVP level when he comes back as long as he suddenly forgets how to play basketball when he plays against the Knicks.
I went from indifference and āheās a good floor general but not sure if he has what it takes to winā to love and respect to Haliburton after last year.
Iām looking around like, he aināt talking about him, he aināt talking about himā¦ then me and Tatum made eye contact.
I bet Tatum was really surprised to being regulated to water boyĀ
I mean it is pretty crazy. I get it but damn.
It would be interesting to compare bench warmers among the different Olympic teams. I imagine Tatum has to be the best.
Ok I actually just went through all of the stats for each Olympic year. Firstly it’s kind of tricky to define benchwarmer. Tatums minutes per game were actually not that low. But he was DNP multiple games. So I’m calling a bench warmer anyone who was purposefully DNP or averaged under 10 MPG. The only guys who are even moderately close to Tatum are:
Dream Team Stockton. 4 games at 7.6 MPG
2012 Harden. Played every game at 9.2 MPG. This was the year before his breakout so I dont think this counts.
Anyway I think Tatum is better than both of them.
So yes…Jayson Tatum is the greatest Olympic benchwarmer of all time. Congrats Jayson!
Crazy Stockton didnāt get minutes. Iām being lazy, but was he competing with Magic for minutes?
Stockton broke his fibula 2 weeks prior to the Olympics
“Doctors for the U.S Olmpic basketball team said it is possible for Stockton to recover from the fracture to his right fibula in time for the start of the Barcelona Olympics on Aug. 9, if he can put up with the pain. Stockton cracked the small bone in his lower leg in a collision with teammate Michael Jordan in a game with Canada on Monday night.”
Yeah thatāll do it. Appreciate you looking it up.
At least Magic but it looks like they didn’t always have a traditional point guard. I mean they could have used literally any combination of 5 players. Interestingly Chris Mullin was second in MPG behind Jordan.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/international/teams/united-states/1992.html
Scottie Pippen was the primary ball handler with Magic 2nd in the games he played and Jordan ending up third.
There was a lot more passing than you would expect though, all four players that averaged over 20 minutes had at least 3.6 apg and Jordan led the team in minutes at 23.1 mpg
In an Olympic setting I’d have a hard time imagining the coach would rather have Tatum over Stockton.
WE DID ITTTTT!!!
Eh.
Better scorer? I’ll give Tatum that.
Stockton is a better facilitator and defender (at his position).
We are talking about the all time assist AND steal leader here. Two records that probably have Will-level difficulty to break. And Stockton wasn’t on the dream team by reputation - he was 30 years old and just came off a 13.7 ast/ 3 steal season while shooting 40% from 3.
No, Bron easily takes the cake for 2004
As a name, yes. But rookie year LeBron was not better than current Tatum.
The season a few months after their respective benchings
2004-05 Bronze: 27/7/7/2.9 stocks, 55.4 TS%, 8.6 BPM, 9.1 VORP
2024-25 The anomaly: 27/9/6/1.6 Stocks, 58.2 TS%, 5.2 BPM, 4.8 VORP
š¤·š¤·š¤·
Statflation TS%inflation are important to remember when looking at these stats. And itās a reason why LeBrons on off metrics are better despite having seemingly worse stats.
Thaz true
idk itās closer than you think
Rookie LeBron had insane athleticism and motor and pretty good court vision, the rest of his game was severely lacking (in comparison to his peak). Tatum was 1st team all-nba
Nah Tatum was way more polished than 2004 Lebron. Maybe in an NBA environment where you can try and play 1v5, you can make an argument that itās close. But in team environment like Team USA, zero chance young LeBron could contribute anywhere close to prime Jayson Tatum
Eh, this was after the rookie year, towards the end of which heād figured a lot of stuff out. This was basically sophomore LeBron.
And idk how old you are, but I definitely remember sports columns complaining about Larry brown not playing LeBron even though, whenever he did get on the floor, he was always the best player on the floor.
Tatum was at worst the fourth best player on team USA lol, it never made sense that he didnāt play
He was on a really bad stretch of form.
In the minutes he did play he shot 38% FG (worst on the team) and missed all his 3s.
And he also was competing for the same role that Lebron and KD was in.
Also, everyone makes it seem like Tatum didn’t get any playing time at all, he had 71 in the Olympics. White (80), Embiid (84), Jrue (95), Bam(96), Ant (98), AD (99) are all within a stones throw in terms of minutes.
He didn’t do well in the 71 minutes he DID get (38%) so got less minutes when things tightened up.
Wow it seemed like Embiid got a lot more run, so I’m surprised it was only an extra 13 minutes.
Probably because Embid made a bigger impact when he was on the floor. He really shined.
Embiid on half a knee was there to handle Jokic against Serbia. Job done. Guys like AD and Bam were more versatile in that moment but realistically he wasnāt going to play like Bron/KD/Curry minutes still coming off knee surgery.
Embiid played a lot of important minutes later on but sat a lot in earlier games.
As much as I hate to admit it you’re right. I was in my feelings at the time seeing as we’d literally just won the championship but his jumper was all over the place from like the ECF onwards.
I believe he was in a shooting slump during that time and while JT is kind of a jack of all trades type of player, he was competing with guys who were masters of their craft. Kd has elite shooting and scoring ability, Bron has elite playmaking, paint scoring, leadership, jrue/white are elite poa/on ball defenders, Booker took on a role/glue type of player role and was excelling at it
Shot poorly in the playoffs leading up to the olympics and he overlapped in position with Lebron and KD. Also, he missed a couple games but he did get some minutes
There wasn’t a much he added at all over KD/Lebron and they had enough bigs and guards that fit better
Another major basketball reason is that Bron and Steph were a perfect fit. And KD the perfect off ball weapon.
Tatum got plenty of playing time early on, and he played bad. So once it got real serious in the semi-finals and finals, no one would’ve picked him over KD. And Bron was basically running the whole offense, which Tatum could not do.
Just bad timing for him and underwhelming performances. Still got a gold.
relegated
Regurgitated
Itās that wiiiiiide frame, it lets him warm up as much of the bench as possible at once
Instigated a whole media campaign just to get some pity minutes
Even worse when you realize his own cousin was on the coaching staff š¤£š¤£š¤£
He did get minutes though, it was just against Serbia he didn’t play
He kinda sucked in the minutes he got so he got fewer and fewer and it snowballed. Haliburton never really got a chance, which is weird, because there were a couple blowouts from what I remember.
Mac and Charlie looking at each other from across the restaurant
Gotta love HaliĀ
Agree.. Dude is such good vibes! Team USA shit, most overrated shit, injury shit.. still in good mindset no matter what
Exactly lol, he shut them all up with this Finals run the following NBA season
God I wish the game 7 tragedy didnāt happen
honestly thinking about it too much makes me nauseous.
if he closes it out? Greatest playoffs performance ever.
he was on fire too before he went down :(
It’s ok tho he’ll be back
It’s one of, if not the greatest, playoff runs of all-time even without closing it out. Homie hit a game winner or game tying shot in every single round. Few players manage to do that in their entire career.
As fans we have to stop adding these caveats especially when the player has a catastrophic injury. It’s not like he choked in game 7, he was on a heater before dying 5 minutes into the game.
Shit makes me sick
It (weirdly) makes me feel better knowing it was a matter of when, not if, and that it wasn’t much of a surprise. But damn it sucked.
Always love Hali. Wanted him on the warriors too
Hey at least you got a few years with Wiseman
Wiseman’s luck is that Steph carried that team to a chip.
Lacob making them start Wiseman in 2021 basically ruined that season. Probably would’ve been a top 5 seed if it wasn’t for that. We were SO much better after he got injured and couldn’t play it was crazy. What a waste of one of Stephs all time seasons.
I want to hate him after what he did to my team but I just can’t. Overall just seems like a great dude.
Glad some of the next gen superstars mostly seem to have a good head on their shoulders (Hali, Shai, Wemby, etc)
Hali is GOATED man. Probably the most likable dude in the NBA. Hopefully he comes back from injury and is still able to play close to his level.
You can never make me hate you Hali
Really wish he didnāt get hurt in game 7 man wouldāve been crazy if they won the chip. I love Hali
Yeah, man. That was such a bummer.
I was watching that game on my phone on the way home (passenger seat, don’t worry). I remember being at a gas station when the injury happened, and it felt so terrible. Can’t even imagine it for Pacers fans.
Drove by that same gas station a week or two ago and thought about that, oof.
Can’t even imagine it for Pacers fans.
I was in Gainbridge Fieldhouse at the watch party. Total silence. And then on the first replay everyone saw the achilles snap. Brutal.
Will say that being up by 1 at halftime really had a lot of us looking past the injury (in the moment) and still being hopeful.
Benny Math’s surge in the 4th was some of the most courageous basketball I’ve watched. Every damn play he took the best defence in the league 1v5 and got to the line every single time. Getting hit, lying on the floor, but still knocking down his fts. And dude was GASSED. Thought he might will a 15 point comeback by himself.
Yeah, I gained a ton of respect for him as a player for his effort, everyone else played shell shocked. McConnell was a beast in the second half too.
I was watching games 5, 6, and 7 at a Vegas sports lounge. I can still hear collective gasps and then groans.
It was such a good series that it the most hyped I could remember a playoff being, but the energy just kind of died in the room after that.
Even people wearing thunder jerseyās were bummed.
It went from back and forth jibes between the two fans to just kind of quiet desperation from the pacers side.
Full disclosure, not a Pacers fan, but I liked Hali from the Kings so bet on the Pacers. My first actual time sports betting. Was bummed, but definitely more bummed for Hali, the team, and such a flat ending to the series than my money.
Pacers fan here. Wouldnāt trade the run last year for anything. The Achilles in the Finals when he was feeling himself genuinely put me into a real depression. I went numb. It was weird. We were hanging around at half and I didnt feel much. Partially knew we couldnāt hang around forever. But yeah. Amazing run. Believe we wouldāve won if he doesnāt go down. But either way, that run made everybody respect a team (and a player) that a lotta people didnāt respect
We back once we get young boozer
they did my goat dirty š
Love Hali. He has to be a starter for the 2028 Olympics right
That was the purpose of having him on the 2024 team
Depends on how he rebounds from injury. As it stands, you’d have to imagine Edwards and Cunningham are also in the running for starting guard, Booker’s also in with a shout as well so Haliburton will definitely have some stiff competition.
After his sacrifice in 2024, Book definitely starts if he’s still at the level.
Had the perfect mentality and won GoldĀ
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1ep5ldq/tyrese_haliburton_when_you_aint_do_nun_on_the/
that’s in this clip lol
wtf is that flair š
my boy Talen Heaves a Three had the whole team doing backhand layups show some respect
Honestly itās an interesting dynamic. There are 12 top players in the world and youāre asking them to sacrifice to a point they never had to. Respect to these guys
Booker adapted his game and as a result got more playing time.
He was like, the team doesn’t need more ball dominant scorers, but needs defense/passing/timely corner 3s and he adapted to it.
Aside from the Big 3, Book was probably my favorite player to watch.
Im a homer obviously, but he has an incredible BBIQ. Doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but he’s the reason our offense is pretty great and we’ve “unlocked” so many random players.Ā
Exactly, these are people who have never been told theyāre not getting playing timeā¦.. ever
Great Clip. Haliburton is a good story teller and ain’t afraid to speak his mind.
lol Tyrese seems like such a chill dude. This is why the Tatum not playing talk was dumb. All these dudes deserved to play and filled a role. Unfortunately his role was filled by someone who is just as good with more experience.
OK Tatum had very high role past Olympics, 2021 in Tokyo in golden mission, but this time there was LeBron
With social media, being an Olympics head coach is mentally tough. People forget the basketball games are much shorter in the Olympics, so not all 12 players can get minutes or meaningful minutes. The fans of these 12 players will always be mad that their favorite player is not getting minutes and will place all the blame on the head coach. They forget, itās a collective decision made by all the coaches (assistant coaches too) and the players of the team.
This dude really won me over the past couple years. Like I donāt give a single solitary fxck about the Pacers, but I teared up when he got injured that Game 7.
I think we all did
I got sad too. Look at my flair.
same shit here
Why couldn’t this guy be a champion, God literally hates us
He is a champ, he won Gold and made it to the league. Better than 99% of people can say
literally won gold
we want the real world championship AND the fake one
I remember people clowned that Haliburton was on the team, and then a year later he had one of (if not the) best clutch playoff runs in NBA history and led his team to the Finals.
So pretty cool that now in retrospect, it feels right that he was on the team.
That’s my point guard!
Point God!
Lmao him and tatum had the same realization. Id have play hali over whitee he was getting cooked final 2 games
If White was getting cooked, then wth was Hali going to do?! lol
White is in another stratosphere than Hali as a defender. Hali was never going to touch the ball enough to actually show off his elite playmaking ability. White was always the better option. Especially with old Bron, Steph and KD on the court.
I just mean the serbia game he had 0 across the board Ant and white were struggling i would of tried tatum n hali
Sure, Tatum could have been an option. But I think it’s pretty obvious that Kerr and the coaching staff weren’t going to change their rotation, because of one bad day of a role player.
In general, coaches usually don’t “punish” their player’s bad performance in-game, when it’s not a recurring issue. And White was still great defensively, which was his biggest value to the team. Just like Jrue.
The thing that makes the Tatum DNP funny is that he probably didn’t think they were talking about him
Hali was good sport about it. Tatum on other hand was salty and his parents made twitter posts calling US coaching staff out.
Ya’ll think that shit is funny?
-Tatum, ptobably
Hali would be a great dude to have a beer with
You might have to settle for a Concrete Mixer from Culver’s.
Only if we get a large onion rings too
Love this guy. Great guest for the Pod
I love this guy.
A superstar, millionaire and more humble than most people Iāve seen in my life. Nothing but love
Even tho the āface of the leagueā convos are kind of ridiculous, Iām always like āItās Tyrese!ā He isnāt but he should be. Dude is just the best.
I know Im biased, but Tyrese would definitely be a good candidate for that cause he’s…
a basketball psycho, plays team first basketball, loves the spotlight, interacts great with fans, voluntarily gives back to the community, pays tribute to the basketball legends, can crossover into new media (WWE), is PR trained but still genuine, designs his own shoes (not nike), is from the midwest, plays a fun brand of basketball kids would love for copy, supports the Indiana Fever and is great friends with Caitlin Clark,
went on a legendary playoffs run with comeback and buzzerbeater games that will be replayed for decades to come,
and despite not having the same awards that SGA has and not being talked about by the sports media, he is quickly becoming a fan favorite across the league.
I love hali , I also love how he has wired headphones on him.
Hahaha, halis hilarious, always a good guy
Having a full lineup of players whoāve already played Olympics Basketball is crucial. If Hali and Tatum can come back at full strength, then I would love to see the following players on Team USA in 2028:
Going for his fifth gold medal, Durant would be 39 like Lebron was at the Paris games but heās walking bucket and is perfect for Olympics 25mpg as the 6th Man.
Bam may not make the cut due to being undersized and some regression in his game already. But I donāt see AD not Embiid making it.
Donāt think KD is gonna be there. Thereās a lot of front court guys coming up who deserve a spot.
Flagg Chet Scottie Barnes Evan Mobley (maybe) JJJ (Maybe)
Plus thereās Cade, Maxey, Donovan Mitchell probably deserves a nod, Jalen Williams, maybe Jaylen Brown, etc
KD has earned a spot as long as he wants it.
If KD says he wants to play, then Team USA will let him. Even though he’s old KD is still a cold-blooded scorer and as we saw in Paris, the team is going to need someone who can get a bucket when they’re behind or in a slump. Just like what Steph did against Serbia.
I think Ant is a bucket-getter but with international ball, Donovan, Maxey, Tatum and Brown haven’t proven it yet.
Tatum already got gold in the Tokyo Olympics back in 2021, but idk how well he played in them.
How can you hate a guy like Haliburton? Seems like a genuine and humble dude. Plays winning basketball but take himself too seriously
I just wanna hear Coach K make that speech in 2008 because damn Redd and Boozer took it like a champ that it’s pretty much a thing since then.
Get well Tyrese!
Haha I love how happy LeBron is listening to this story
So wholesome how Hali is humble and self aware enough about his status
lol that’s hilarious
Gold medal regardless
After watching Hali on season 2 of starting 5, dude has a fan in me. Hope he comes back and hoops
Iām a Haliburton Hater (for fun, seems like a great guy) but this story is hilarious lmao. Weāve all been there
It’s hard to hate on the Haliban. Seems like a genuinely good dude. I loved how little he cared about the Olympics. Was just enjoying the experience and didn’t get butt hurt.
Hali is the best
This guy completely destroyed my soul last year and he still might be my favorite dude in the league.
Its all good Tyrese you’ll be the starting PG for us in 2028 when we win gold again
every clip i see makes me love hali man hope he comes back stronger
why do all these teams I hate have such likable tiny guards
I wanna hear this story in the other voice now
he’ll have a bigger role in 2028 of course
If you saw him at the bench he was cheering them on. He legit was ok with his role.
Unlike certain people…
God damn this dude needs to come back as the same player… I have never been so sad seeing another team’s star go down.Ā
Dude did choke celebrations and is still one of the most likable players in the NBA. Canāt imagine hating this guy
As a Knicks fan I will from here on out only hate this guy when heās playing against our team. He seems like such a standup guy similar to maxey. Wishing both of them long prosperous careers
And in the end, they were all at home watching him take over and carry the Pacers to the Finals. That’s that quiet confidence that you need in your superstar that they can take over when needed but still a team player.
fucking hilarious
Mf tells a funny story and y’all in here writing testimonials wtf lol
Bro was still very memorable as the šcheerleader those Olympics. Loved the vibes
We need him back on the court, playing the playoff finals.
Lmao Hali will never not endear himself to me when he speaks.
I love that he can laugh about it. The question i have as a Celtics fan is what was Tatum’s reaction to that did he know they were talking about him?
I donāt understand why all 12 guys canāt play
Big fan of dude when he was in Sacramento. Super bummed when he left
Seethes in Tatum
I’m just here to bring maximum vibes.
Obligatory F Hali as Knicks fan. This is damn hilarious. I like his mindset.
recruited for playmaking ā
recruited for the vibes ā
This is such a Jeff Teague esque story
This is before we were familiar with his game
Tyrese deserved a ton of minutes. Dude is all heart and thats what Team USA lacks most times.
Little did he know they were actually talking about Tatum.
He has such an infectious spirit
Sorry but does LeBron have gems on his teeth at 0:35?
GLD
If France finds themselves some guards, theyāre going to be a force next Olympics
Similar to ā04 and ā08, once the older guys retire he have to take over. And no one brings terror on the opposing Teams better than the Haliban.
Process of elimination š¤£
Hali is a great orator.
And they wanna blame Kerr for Tatum not playing. Knowing damn well if KD or LeBron wanted him on that court, he wouldāve been on that court.
Bron’s reaction lol
Bro this made me laugh so hard
Did Jason Tatum miss the meeting? He was pissed
Love Hali dude is a good sport and a great player
I wonder what would have happened if he stayed with the Kings
That’s pretty funny, good attitude about it
I love him š
Props to Hali for speaking the truth about MN!
Still not overrated. Love this guy
All of these names being thrown around about who will be the American face of the NBA once Curry, Durant, and James retire - Tyrese Haliburton is your answer.
This dude is so likeable.
Hali isn’t a petty bitch. He clearly can turn up when needed as shown in that pacers miracle run. But he is totally fine being a team player.
Perfect mentality for any team, Indiana got so lucky getting him…. And it just adds to the horror story for the kings
Heās got such good delivery lmaoo
How could you not love this guy?? I’m a Warriors fan, but he’s absolutely one of my favorite players in the league.