The 2024 USA Basketball men’s team was one of the greatest rosters assembled for the Olympics, and, of course, they took home the gold medal. The pictures from the ceremony show one version of the story: smiles, celebrations, and yet another dominant run. What they don’t show is how disorienting the experience was for some of the biggest names on the roster, especially for those at the peak of their powers, like Jayson Tatum.

“In 2024, I was first team All-NBA, came off a championship,” Tatum explained on the Pivot Podcast. “I was riding this cloud. And then I get to the Olympics, and it didn’t go how I wanted it. We still won. And you know, I built some relationships and I gained some great memories from it… I felt like people didn’t take into account how I was trying to process that in real time.”

Tatum isn’t wrong. He had led the Boston Celtics to a championship as a top player on the team, on the cover of 2K, was one of the five best players in the NBA, and the lone American player in that group. Then, the Olympics started, and suddenly, none of it mattered.

Tatum contrasted that with his last Olympics experience in Tokyo. Played in 2021, those games saw him being the second leading scorer behind Kevin Durant and a key part of the gold medal run, but Paris was very different. He didn’t play in two of the games, and the gap between his resume and role was something he admitted to not being able to process in real time.

What bothered him wasn’t just that the minutes were low, but how fast the public narrative skipped his present reality.

“Everybody was like, ‘Yo, I can’t wait till you play the Warriors,’” Tatum said, referencing Olympics head coach Steve Kerr. “‘I know you’re going to try to kill them…’ Yeah, but how about how I’m feeling right now? F— what’s going to happen in the future.”

He wasn’t the only player to struggle with this reality either.

Tyrese Haliburton Realized It Before Jayson Tatum and It Hit Immediately

Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton experienced the same reality that Jayson Tatum talked about, but it all happened much fast for him. During a recent appearance on Olympics teammate LeBron James’ Mind the Game podcast, he told a never-before-heard story.

“We’re going to have the team meeting where we acknowledge that all 12 guys cannot play,” Haliburton explained. “Steve starts talking about everybody can’t play. And Bron is talking about how, you know, in the 2004 Olympics, ‘I didn’t really play that much…’ And KD’s over there like, ‘at the end of the day with 12 All-Stars, everybody’s good.'”

Haliburton was listening, but as film began to roll, he looked around the room and did the calculations, eliminating names in his head, before slowly realizing the truth: “I’m like, oh, they talking about me… I’m like, oh, no. This is what it is?”

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He was joking and laughing with James about the situation, so it’s clear that he’s moved on from that part of his life. But his description of not being able to focus on film because he knew he wasn’t getting playing time stuck.