Tyrese Haliburton knows what it is like to be inspired by Olympic greatness.
One of the biggest stars of the 2025 NBA playoffs, Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers are looking to shock the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Haliburton has become one of the stars of the 2025 NBA playoffsGettyThe Pacers secured a 4-1 win against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the postseason, and now hold a 2-1 lead against the Cavs in their Eastern Conference Semifinal.
But while Haliburton is on top of the world right now, he also knows a little bit about ‘failure’ too.
Before securing gold at the Paris Olympics in 2024, he was part of a Team USA squad that fell short on a global stage 12 months prior.
“We spent like a month, 40 days together, and I left with nothing,” said Haliburton, referring to a highly disappointing run for the United States men’s national basketball team in 2023.
That squad finished in fourth place at the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Anything less than gold during the Olympics in Paris would have been unacceptable for the likes of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Haliburton and a new Team USA squad that was being compared to the sport-changing Dream Team from 1992.
“We go at the end of the day to win a medal,” Haliburton said ahead of the tournament.
“So the gold medal is — we don’t have any other expectation. That’s our goal and that’s what we wanna do.”
Team USA went on to reach their goal, and win the gold. But Haliburton didn’t play much part.
He barely featured in the tournament, having re-aggravated a hamstring injury he dealt with at the end of last season.
USA won gold at the Paris Olympics, but Haliburton played little partGettyTo those looking on, he was the 12th man on a 12-man team.
Haliburton even playfully made light of his effort when the team won gold, posting: “When you ain’t do nun on the group project and still get an A.”
“In the season when everybody’s talking s***, I have the power to go out on the court and change people’s opinions,” Haliburton told the Athletic in a recent interview.
“With the Olympics, what could I do? I wasn’t playing, so there was only so much response I could give you.
“And I think that I just got consumed with the negativity of people talking s***.”
Despite a tough time with the national team last summer, Haliburton is out to silence the trolls in the playoffs.
Haliburton has taken inspiration for his career so farGettyHis father caused controversy by ‘disrespecting’ Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first round, and the Pacers have since gone on to take a shock lead against Cleveland.
Donovan Mitchell, however, is looking to inspire the Cavaliers to a historic turnaround in that series.
Haliburton, though, has previously opened up about drawing inspiration from another famous US basketball team.
Before he felt the pain of falling short with his country, he closely watched another squad that had to prove its worth on an international stage.
Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade helped put Team USA back on top of the world in 2008 at Beijing, China.
The Redeem Team was a perfect inspiration for Haliburton in 2024, just like it was during his youth.
“I was at the premiere of Redeem Team, the documentary, and me and D-Wade talked after that,” he said last year.
“I was like, ‘Man, I got to be a part of it and I wanna do this so bad.’ I already knew I wanted to do it.
AFPHaliburton has been inspired by how Bryant and Wade found basketball redemption[/caption]“But I think seeing that, it just gives you goosebumps, like you wanna be a part of it and then got the opportunity.”
While representing his nation on the international stage will always be in the back of his mind, Haliburton is fully focused on the playoffs right now.
Knocking off the heavily-favored Cavaliers and moving on to the Eastern Conference finals would go quite a way to keeping his doubters quiet.
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