Tyrese Haliburton Wants the Conversation to Be About Basketball - Not Buzzwords
Tyrese Haliburton isn’t just one of the most exciting young point guards in the league-he’s also one of the most thoughtful voices in the game today. And as he rehabs from a torn right Achilles tendon, he’s finding new ways to stay connected to the sport he loves.
This season, the Pacers’ two-time All-Star has taken on a commentator role with NBA on Prime, and unsurprisingly, his basketball IQ has made him a go-to guest across the podcast landscape. It’s clear that once his playing days are over, Haliburton’s future in broadcasting is already lined up.
But right now, Haliburton’s focus is still on the court-even if he’s temporarily sidelined. And during a recent appearance on LeBron James’ Mind The Game podcast, he opened up about what it was like to watch national media cover the Pacers’ surprising run to the NBA Finals last season.
His takeaway? The wins forced the conversation to shift from empty narratives to actual basketball.
“Us winning was forcing the networks to have to talk about basketball,” Haliburton said. “And I know that’s hard sometimes for some people to talk about basketball.
When we’re winning, you’re not talking about what my legacy is or Pascal [Siakam]’s legacy. You gotta talk about the game, because you’re talking about us.”
That shift, he explained, exposed a deeper issue: a tendency in media circles to lean on simplistic, often reductive storylines-like whether or not Haliburton is a “superstar”-instead of digging into the X’s and O’s. And to Haliburton, that’s not just frustrating, it’s lazy.
“They quickly shifted it to, ‘How can we make this conversation-this lame-ass conversation-be about, Is Tyrese Haliburton a superstar?’ That was just so lazy to me,” he said.
Haliburton didn’t shy away from calling out what he sees as a lack of high-level basketball discourse. He pointed to the Pacers’ playoff run as a case study in how strategy-not just star power-can drive success.
Indiana didn’t follow the traditional postseason blueprint of slowing things down and grinding out possessions. Instead, they leaned into their fast-paced identity, ramped up full-court pressure, and turned the tempo into a weapon.
“If y’all wanted to actually talk about hoop, you could talk about what our team is doing,” Haliburton said. “How we’re applying more full-court pressure.
We’re proving that you don’t have to slow down in the playoffs to succeed. We’re doing all these things that you feel the need not to talk about because you want to run narratives.”
That authenticity-both in his play and in his perspective-is part of what’s made Haliburton such a compelling figure. And it’s not just fans who’ve taken notice. LeBron James, who co-hosts Mind The Game with JJ Redick, came to Haliburton’s defense during the episode, especially in response to an anonymous player poll that labeled Haliburton the league’s most overrated player.
“I know you don’t care, I don’t care, we use it as fuel,” James said. “But we have too many watchers of stat sheets.
… Everything in the whole narrative of our game is getting a bucket. And if he’s not a bucket-getter, then he’s not great.
He’s overrated. He ain’t a bucket-getter.”
James pushed back on that idea, pointing instead to the impact Haliburton had on winning. The Pacers were 20 games over .500, and Haliburton’s presence on the floor consistently elevated his teammates. That, James argued, should be the measure of greatness-not whether someone drops 30 a night.
“How about the fact that my teammates, when we’re on the court, they love what we bring to the table?” James added. “I just think it’s ridiculous sometimes.”
And while Haliburton’s playoff run ended in heartbreak-tearing his Achilles in Game 7 of the Finals against the Thunder-his performance throughout the postseason left a lasting impression. He delivered clutch moments in every series, including a game-winner in Game 1 against Oklahoma City, and played through a calf strain that ultimately led to the more serious injury. It was the kind of run that earns respect, not just for the highlight plays, but for the grit behind them.
“That was a big-time run there,” James said. “You mentioned legacy and all that and changing the narrative of you or whatever the case may be with winning it. I think you did that even with y’all losing, too.”
James went on to say that Haliburton gave everything he had-his body, his energy, his leadership-and while the ring may have eluded him, the respect didn’t. In James’ eyes, Haliburton captured everything that comes with a championship run, short of the trophy itself.
“The only thing you didn’t get was the ring,” James said. “But everything that you think you would’ve been able to capture winning it, you did it as well because of you going out there and putting your body on the line.”
Haliburton may not have hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy last June, but he left no doubt about who he is: a leader, a thinker, and a true student of the game. And as he continues his recovery, he’s making one thing clear-if you want to talk about basketball, talk about basketball. He’s ready for that conversation.