Tyrese Haliburton did not get a lot of playing time with Team USA, but he surely got an experience of a lifetime. From going to Paris with the entire Team USA contingent to getting close with some of the best basketball talent in the country, like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry.
The Indiana Pacers star appeared on Logan Paul’s podcast ‘Impaulsive’ with Mike Majlak and spoke about his time in Paris with Team USA.
“That Olympic team has made me cool with like everybody, you know, that’s been like the cool part about it. Like, not many people are cool with Joel Embiid. I happen to be pretty cool with him. He like FaceTimed me the other day, and I’m like, ‘You don’t call anybody.’”
“So like he’s genuinely checking on me. And so I think that’s just the cool part of like the lives we get to live. You get to grow like close to all the people that you grew up watching. Like that’s insane, the best sh** ever.”
When Majlak asked Haliburton why many people were not close to Embiid, he had a simple response. He pointed to his trust issues.
“He’s a cool a** dude. I think he just is like he’s just wary of people. Like he keeps you at arm’s distance, you know? Like he doesn’t let a ton of people… He just keeps everybody kind of at a distance.”
“But we work out with the same trainer in LA. So he usually kicks everybody out of the gym when he works out. He lets me stay. So I know I’m in his good graces when I’m there.”
Haliburton then moved on to describe how he got close to Kevin Durant while sitting on the bench and his plans to go for the Olympics again.
“Yeah. I think hopefully, you know, if I get to play in ’28, I think it’ll be much different. It got to the point, bro, where I was literally cuz like I stopped playing when we were in London, like when we were doing exhibition games and KD was hurt.”
“So that’s how we became close, because I would just sit there and crack jokes the whole game. And so KD was like, ‘Yo, f**k sitting up there. I’m just going to sit on the end of the bench with you,’ and we’ll just f***ing clown the game the whole time.”
“So we just sat there. That’s how we became close. But it kind of was like, me and Ant [Anthony Edwards] were kind of like the little bros. We were the two youngest dudes on the team. So, it was just like, bro, it was a lot of fun, and like I don’t regret it for a moment. Like, I’ll hopefully get the opportunity to do it again.”
While Haliburton did not make an appearance on the court during the Semi-Finals and the Finals (Gold Medal game), he played minimal time in the three games Team USA played before that stage.
He played a combined 26 minutes in the Olympic Games after losing his spot to Derrick White, where he scored a cumulative total of eight points and two assists in three games. Despite it not being the most active appearance in the Olympics, Haliburton would happily do it again as long as he gets to play more.
