Team USA women’s basketball squad was thrilled to bag their eighth consecutive gold in the Olympics on Sunday. However, one thing that was a cause of concern for all USA fans was that despite it being the last game in red, white, and blue for the veteran Diana Taurasi, she didn’t play as big a role as expected. Taurasi wasn’t on the starting lineup for the third consecutive game, and the 42-year-old wasn’t allowed to come off the bench. This came as a major disappointment for many USA fans who believed that Taurasi must have been injured. If her life wasn’t already difficult amid retirement concerns, it was made all the more complicated by the USA men’s basketball Tyrese Haliburton‘s social media post.

Haliburton took to social media platform X after the Team USA men’s basketball squad upended France by 98-87 earlier in the day. The 24-year-old shared a post where he could be seen wearing the gold medal around his neck. “When you ain’t do nun on the group project and still get an A🏅,” Haliburton captioned the picture. This had a user taking a dig at Taurasi by opining that “Diana Taurasi should recreate this picture and use this caption.”

Haliburton notably played just three games for the Team USA squad in the Paris Olympics. Though he wasn’t given the chance to start in any of them, Haliburton scored 6 points in the limited 8 minutes he played against South Sudan. In the next game against Puerto Rico, the Indiana Pacers star plied his trade for 10 minutes and hit nil points whereas during the face-off against Brazil, Haliburton scored 2 points in 8 minutes. Thus, practically speaking, he didn’t contribute as much as the other players besides cheering for them from the sidelines. Thus, fans compared his situation to that of Taurasi.

In the opening game against Japan, Taurasi played for 15 minutes but could only score 2 points. In the next game against Belgium, Taurasi failed to open her account. Meanwhile, against Germany and Nigeria Taurasi scored 0 and 3 points. Once again in the semi-finals against Australia, Taurasi had zero points while in the Finals against France on Sunday, Taurasi didn’t even get off the bench. Hence, Taurasi averaged a paltry singular point in the five games she played. Seeing this, the fans took to social media to voice their opinion.

Fans have mixed reactions to Tyrese Haliburton’s viral post

“Diana Taurasi in the Olympics,” one fan commented. The user was pointing out the fact Taurasi also hadn’t done much this Olympics. She just had a paltry average of a singular point per game. Hence, the fan-edited Taurasi’s picture instead of Haliburton’s and wrote the same caption as written by Haliburton.

“0 mins, she pulled a Tyrese Halliburton,” another user stated. The social media user was pointing to the fact that much like Haliburton Taurasi didn’t play in the Finals and hence, didn’t deserve the medal.

“Diana Taurasi did less than Tyrese Haliburton,” one user went as far as saying that Taurasi had done less than Haliburton. While Haliburton averaged 2.6 points per game, it was more than Taurasi’s average of one point.

“Tyrese was put on the team cause he earned it though not to get a title of the “most decorated basketball player.” another netizen enumerated. The user was most probably pointing to the fact that Haliburton averaged a whopping 20.1 points per game in the NBA this year with 10.9 assists per game.

“Diana Taurasi please take a picture with Tyrese it would be so fucking funny,” another netizen commented. The user was pointing out the fact that Taurasi & Co. had emulated the men’s basketball team while taking a picture at the steps and hence, she should take one snap with Haliburton too, which would be hilarious considering their contribution to the gold medal.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.