LOS ANGELES (USA) - On August 8, 2024, the pulse raced like never before for USA players at an Olympic basketball game.
That was the day the Americans' gold medal aspirations were almost dashed after trailing by as many as 17 points to Serbia.
Yet they battled back to win 95-91 and advance to the Olympic Final in Paris.
Tyrese Haliburton joined the Mind the Game Podcast hosted by LeBron James and told his USA Olympic teammate, "Bro, when I talk about that game, I get chills thinking about it.
"You were out there. I'm on the bench, and I'm sitting there like d**n. (I'm thinking) We might lose. That was the first time. We never felt like we were going to lose a game. Ever!"
James, the MVP of the Olympics, had 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in the Semi-Final against Serbia.
He replied to Haliburton on the podcast: "Bro, I'm starting to sweat right now thinking about it."'
Haliburton, who'd logged plenty of minutes in the USA's 2023 World Cup team but played sparingly in France, remembered how invincible the American players had felt at the Olympics before that game against Serbia.
"Never in the whole Olympic run did we think we were going to lose a game," he said on the podcast. "We had a really close South Sudan game, and that was in an exhibition (in London) ... But we're not losing.
"That game against Serbia, we were down going into the fourth and (coaches) Steve (Kerr) and Ty (Lue) and (Eric) Spo (Spoelstra) over there (on the bench) like talking about what we're going to do and we're all over there and ya'll are just like, man.
"The way we just turned it up from there, I get chills just thinking about them trying to go to the clear side post for (Nikola) Jokic and you fighting him (for position) in the front and then the next possession, KD (Kevin Durant) is fighting him in the front with help on the backside.
"It was unbelievable. I get chills thinking about that game."
"It was unbelievable," James said. "You know, it's only 10 minute quarters and those quarters go like that (James snaps his fingers)."
James then compared it to an NBA game.
"You know how the NBA, 12 minute quarters, all up until the 6-, 5-minute mark, you're like, 'Okay, we still got a chance.'
"But in the Olympics, it got like under 7, under 6 and we're like, 'If we don't make a push, bro, we're toast.'"
The USA did come back, with Stephen Curry drilling a go-ahead 3-pointer for an 87-86 just 2:24 from the end.
It was his ninth 3-ball of the game and the Americans kept their noses in front the rest of the way.
USA then played France in the Gold Medal Game for the second Olympics in a row.
Les Bleus pushed them all the way to the end, as they had in Tokyo in 2021.
Yet Curry followed his 3-point shooting explosion against Serbia with another against France, burying 8 shots from the arc, and the Americans held on.
Haliburton has since that Olympics played arguably the best basketball of his career, leading Indiana into the 2025 NBA Finals against Oklahoma City. In Game 7, though, he went down with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Rehabbing the injury now, he is expected to begin playing again in the 2026-27 NBA season.
James, meanwhile, is playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
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