{"id":782403,"date":"2023-07-20T11:59:40","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T15:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=782403"},"modified":"2023-07-26T12:29:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T16:29:17","slug":"tyrese-haliburton-245","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/the-magazine\/tyrese-haliburton-245\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Rise of Tyrese Haliburton and His Mission to Lead the Pacers Back on Track"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What\u2019s got Tyrese Haliburton smiling like that? The Indiana Pacers guard is trying really, really  hard not to do it as he poses for his first SLAM cover, but he can\u2019t help it. At first it seems like he\u2019s just in a good mood: he spent a week vacationing in the Bahamas with teammate Buddy Hield, then hit Tulum before jetting off to Los Angeles, where he\u2019s been working out with trainer Drew Hanlen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s the obvious: he\u2019s into the moment and what we have in store for him at the shoot. A duffle bag full of mystery items to film an episode of \u201cBag Talk,\u201d an oversized Pacers throwback jersey with a pair of Timberlands and more. Inside the gym, music is blasting through the speakers\u2014it\u2019s a mix of old school Drake and Disney Channel throwbacks like High School Musical <\/em>(Tyrese, a huge HSM<\/em> fan, can sing every word). His longtime girlfriend, Jade, and agency rep are here with us, too, and encourage him to just be himself while the camera snaps away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once he sits down to talk about his All-Star performance this season, that smile appears again. Actually, it\u2019s more of a smirk now. Maybe he knows something that we don\u2019t?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days from now, the news will drop that Haliburton is signing a five-year max extension worth $260 million, making him the face of the franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve battled and clawed and fought my way to get to where I\u2019m at,\u201d he says. \u201cNow criticism and all that stuff means nothing to me because when I was a kid, nobody would have cared enough to even give me criticism. So the fact that I get it now is pretty cool. I just love proving people wrong. I don\u2019t know, I love negativity. I love seeing negativity on Twitter. I love hearing people say negative comments about my game. It always interests me. It could be somebody with, like, no followers, I just want to prove them wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SLAM 245 featuring the Indiana Pacers All-Star is out now. Shop here. <\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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This is the same Tyrese Haliburton who was a three-star prospect in high school and, in his words, was expected to redshirt as a freshman at Iowa State. He went from there to becoming a lottery pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. After a mid-season trade last year sent him from Sacramento to Indiana, he\u2019s now an All-Star and was the team\u2019s leading scorer this past season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While other people might not have seen the vision, Haliburton has always been in his own lane. It stems from his childhood. In elementary school, his guidance counselors would tell him to pick a career path that seemed more \u201crealistic\u201d when he would mention that he wanted to be in the NBA. For the sake of moving things forward, Haliburton would pick something else, but really, he was always thinking a step ahead about how to make it to the League. There\u2019s even a video of a young Tyrese on the internet, rapping to Drake\u2019s \u201cThe Motto.\u201d<\/a><\/strong> In it, he sings, \u201cHow ya feel, how ya feel? 25, sitting on 25 mill<\/em>.\u201d Even little Tyrese knew what was up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And like the flow Drake and Weezy carry in that song, Haliburton\u2019s rise happened pretty quickly. In college, he thought he\u2019d have a \u201cgood four-year career\u201d at Iowa State but ended playing two seasons. There\u2019s always been doubters, too, even when it comes to his shot-making ability, which he says has been critiqued since he was young. \u201cIt\u2019s always just kind of been that way, but I\u2019m just gonna be who I am at the end of the day. It\u2019s helped me get here, so I must be doing something right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, in the city of Indianapolis, home to the Indy 500, Haliburton is bringing that same energy and speed to the Pacers\u2019 offense. That\u2019s just how he was taught to play the game\u2014pushing the tempo, getting up and down at a rapid rate. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s contagious as well\u2014good energy, and pace and all that stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen we\u2019re playing fast-paced like we do, I think everybody just falls in line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the team showed flashes of promise this season, collectively and individually\u2014Haliburton averaged 20.7 points and 10.4 points (both career highs), and big man Myles Turner hit new career marks with 18 points and 7.5 boards\u2014there\u2019s still room for improvement. Winning is Haliburton\u2019s main priority right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had a winning season in, like, four years dating back to college, so that\u2019s just where I want to get to,\u201d he says, later adding: \u201cThere\u2019s obviously a lot more for me to accomplish personally, but I want to win. I want to be playing on the biggest stage, and that\u2019s the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Haliburton doesn\u2019t hesitate to keep it real about how last season went. The Pacers finished with a 35-47 record, ranked 11th in the East, and he found it \u201cfrustrating\u201d to have to deal with injuries knowing that his team needed him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt like if I\u2019m healthy, the situation for us changes a little bit last year,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you can\u2019t control everything. You can only put so much energy into what you can\u2019t control. I think the best advice I\u2019ve ever received is just control what you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s constantly thinking about what\u2019s next, too, and what he can do better individually and as a leader on the team. \u201cI\u2019m obviously already thinking [about] next year,\u201d he says. \u201cLike, what do I have to do for us to get to where we want to be?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer is all about getting stronger so that he can protect himself from injuries and be able to last throughout the season. He\u2019s been lifting 4-5 times a week and sharpening his skills on the court with Hanlen, who noticed a major shift in his mindset over the years. \u201cI would say mentality, just being more aggressive and more confident, and feeling like he is that guy<\/em> that can lead a franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s his approach to the game. Hanlen first got connected to Haliburton, who was playing on the Kings at the time, through his agent, Dave Spahn. Back in January of 2022, the team was set to play Philadelphia, and Hanlen happened to be already be in town to work with Sixers\u2019 superstar Joel Embiid when he agreed to meet Haliburton for dinner the night before at Del Friscos. The conversation quickly turned into Hanlen \u201cpressing\u201d his potential client on what he wanted to achieve. He\u2019d ask him, How many times are you going to be an All-Star? How many times will you make All-NBA First Team?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just giving [Haliburton] a bunch of these gut-punching questions,\u201d Hanlen recalls now. \u201cThen I said, you know what? The biggest thing is you\u2019re not gonna be able to do any of this stuff if you keep attempting<\/em>\u2014I think he was attempting like 11 shots a game at the time or something like that. I was like, it\u2019s just not possible. The math ain\u2019t math-ing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Hanlen offered Haliburton a challenge: \u201cYou wore number 14 in high school, so that\u2019s the number. If you wanna work with me this summer, you have to shoot 14 field goal attempts tomorrow night against the Sixers. Otherwise, I\u2019m not working with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next night, on January 29, Haliburton went out and scored a career-high 38 points on 11-19 field goal attempts. Not only had he accepted Hanlen\u2019s challenge, but he had dominated. The two have worked together ever since and talk after every game. From Hanlen\u2019s perspective, Haliburton has grown in every aspect of the word: from improving his footwork to his shot creation and being a more \u201cdynamic scorer.\u201d Last summer, Haliburton gained 12 pounds, he says, and has become stronger and able to play through more contact. But in terms of Haliburton\u2019s unconventional playing style, Hanlen also just lets him rock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t break things that aren\u2019t broken,\u201d he says, later adding: \u201cWe always try to just strengthen his strengths and we try to attack his weaknesses. There\u2019s nothing that can hold him back from reaching the heights that we think he can get to [and] there\u2019s no reason to take away the uniqueness and the creativity that allows him to be unconventional, but also so dynamic as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 23-year-old doesn\u2019t take himself too seriously, either. Basketball, he says, is a \u201cchild\u2019s game,\u201d and brings him back to memories of having a ball in his crib and playing video games. That\u2019s the joy behind Haliburton\u2019s ever-apparent smile when he\u2019s out there on the hardwood. \u201cWhen I\u2019m playing basketball, it\u2019s just fun,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m a kid again, you know? And that\u2019s what I love about it. This isn\u2019t a job for me. This is a passion of mine and something I really love to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing against All-Stars like Darius Garland, who was drafted a year before him in 2019, is his idea of fun. \u201cWe\u2019re good friends,\u201d he says. \u201cI think that\u2019s important. We just really enjoy competing against each other. I see that being a thing for both of us moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s also a fan of the WNBA and tunes in to as many games as he can, including a recent match-up between the Las Vegas Aces and the Indiana Fever. Haliburton, who live-tweeted his reaction to Chelsea Gray\u2019s elite behind-the-back pass, was taking notes, too. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t even think to try something like that. I mean, maybe I would in the moment, but just on TV it looked crazy. I couldn\u2019t believe that she did that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying everything [she did],\u201d he admits later. \u201cCC [Gray] in the caption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s that energy that\u2019s got Pacers fans excited. Even Indiana\u2019s own Caitlin Cooper, who runs the Basketball, She Wrote<\/em> <\/a><\/strong>blog on Patreon and once wrote about the team for Indy Cornrows<\/em>, has noticed it around the city. The team had its first two sell-out games since February 8, 2020, according to the Indy Star.<\/em> \u201cI can tell you that you\u2019re starting to sense a shift,\u201d says Cooper. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to people who would have never talked to me about the Pacers before and they\u2019re like, I gotta get on the ground floor of this. <\/em>They\u2019re building something special and that Tyrese Haliburton is a really entertaining guy to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way Haliburton has shown love to Indiana is a sign of a promising future ahead. He\u2019s invested in the city, hosting youth basketball camps and even going as far as to promote Cooper\u2019s work and wear her t-shirt, \u201cJUMP PASSES ARE GOOD NOW,\u201d in the tunnel this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that the best thing about Tyrese Haliburton\u2014having him as your franchise player\u2014was just, from the Pacers\u2019 perspective, they\u2019ve talked about the fact that there are murals painted on buildings of Reggie Miller and that they think that Tyrese can get to that level at some point,\u201d says Cooper. \u201cAnd the way that he\u2019s embraced the city and what he means as a franchise star, you can believe that [they\u2019re] going to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to Hanlen, even his other clients have noticed that something is brewing in Indiana, with Tyrese at the forefront of it. \u201cI work with a lot of other NBA players. Anytime somebody signs with the Pacers, the first thing that all my clients say is, Oh, Ty\u2019s gonna get \u2019em paid. Ty\u2019s gonna get \u2019em paid<\/em>. He\u2019s gonna make \u2019em look so much better than that player really is just because Ty makes the game so much easier for everybody around him. When you ask, what is his ceiling? I mean, he\u2019s a guy that I think will be one of, if not the best point guards for the next, next decade and a guy that I think can be a floor general for a championship caliber team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spahn, says they set goals before every season\u2014last year, it was for Haliburton to average 20 and 10 and be an All-Star, which he did. Going into next season, they\u2019re ready for him to amp it up and be All-NBA. \u201cI don\u2019t think there is a limit right now, I think he\u2019s gonna be the best point guard in the League one day,\u201d Spahn says. \u201cAnd I think he\u2019s gonna be the best point guard in the League for a long time. I think he\u2019s that level of player and person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s most important is that Haliburton sees it within himself, too. While the accolades and accomplishments continue to pile up\u2014the week after our shoot, it was announced that he\u2019ll join the 2023 USA men\u2019s national team for the FIBA World Cup this summer\u2014Haliburton knows that in order to get the Pacers where they want to be, they\u2019re going to have to work for it. Proving people wrong ain\u2019t nothing new for him, but right now, Pacers fans are expecting bigger and better things. He\u2019s on a mission to prove \u2019em right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always say, There\u2019s no secret to success. <\/em>All the most successful people in the world, they just usually work harder than everybody else,\u201d Haliburton says. \u201cI just want to be the best that I can and squeeze every bit of God given ability that I have [out]. Squeeze it all out before I\u2019m done playing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SLAM 245 GOLD MEDAL EDITIONS + COVER TEES OUT NOW!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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SHOP NOW<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s got Tyrese Haliburton smiling like that? The Indiana Pacers guard is trying really, really  hard not to do it as he poses for his first SLAM cover, but he can\u2019t help it. At first it seems like he\u2019s just in a good mood: he spent a week vacationing in the Bahamas with teammate Buddy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":424,"featured_media":782494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49435],"tags":[62525,99,12990,65004,65011],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-782403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-magazine","tag-feature-1","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-nba","tag-slam-245","tag-tyrese-halibuton"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782403"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782557,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782403\/revisions\/782557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782403"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=782403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}