Brian Windhorst of ESPN reports this week that the Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton was slowed in the Olympics by a “minor” leg injury and underwent an MRI (despite Team USA not announcing anything).
Windhorst adds that Haliburton was also caught up in a “numbers game” that led to his benching but will still have a future with USA Basketball.
It is unclear if the leg injury is related to the nagging hamstring injury that hampered Haliburton for the second half of the 2023-24 NBA season. But he appeared in just three of six games for Team USA at the Olympics and was a DNP for the other three. Haliburton only got sparse playing time even in the games that he did play in, averaging 2.7 points and 0.7 assists a game.
Team USA obviously had more than enough heavy artillery regardless of Haliburton’s status and ended up winning their fifth straight Olympic gold medal with a 98-87 victory over France on Saturday. But Haliburton, 24, does have an elite skill (his ability to play with pace as a dynamic offensive creator) and likely would have made a far bigger contribution to the team if he was fully healthy. That is in contrast to the other Team USA star who was effectively a healthy scratch for most of the Olympics.
Be the first to comment