How Tyrese Haliburton went from an overlooked recruit to the Pacers' great connector

INDIANAPOLIS -- After the splashy highlight reel of jump passes, no-looks, deep 3s and daring drives set to the heavy guitar riffs of Motorhead's "The Game" on the lowered videoboard at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Kevin Pritchard didn't want to spend a lot of time using his microphone.

It was July 6, the first day the Pacers could formally announce the signing of All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton's five-year max contract extension worth as much as $260 million, and as Pritchard viewed it, it was Haliburton's day and the smiling 6-5, 185-pounder in the sharp navy suit should have the time to bask in it. The Pacers' president of basketball operations didn't see any need to spend a lot of time explaining why he decided to make Haliburton the highest-paid player in franchise history or why the organization had begun viewing Haliburton as a partner rather than just a player.

But there was one important point Pritchard wanted to get across about what made him so confident in a 23-year-old point guard who had been through just three NBA seasons and had been with the Pacers for less than 18 months.

"Sometimes in this business you get great players," Pritchard said. "Then sometimes in this business, you get great humans. And then sometimes you get both. And we have both with Ty."

It was one of the most meaningful moments in a day full of them for the Haliburton family, which had supported Tyrese's rise from a skinny kid in Oshkosh, Wis., without a Power 5 scholarship offer until the summer before his senior year to becoming a lottery pick and then franchise cornerstone.

It mattered to them that the Pacers and Pritchard understood what they truly had in Tyrese.

"It was a great blessing for the family to hear (Pritchard) tell the world that," Haliburton's father, John, said. "We knew it all along, but it's good to know the world can see it, and I don't mind sharing my son with the world."

Pritchard has seen it since he acquired Haliburton in a trade with Sacramento in February of 2022. That's why in his exit meeting at the end of the 2022-23 season, Pritchard, general manager Chad Buchanan, coach Rick Carlisle and lead assistant coach Lloyd Pierce told Haliburton that he would be considered a franchise partner and that his input would be welcomed on all basketball decisions, including personnel choices from the draft to trades to free agency. It's why he represented the Pacers at the NBA Draft Lottery and a vast majority of the Pacers' draft workouts, sometimes sitting at Pritchard's right hand to assess players.

And it's why Pritchard and the Pacers called Haliburton as soon as the clock struck midnight in the Eastern Time Zone on July 1, offering him as many years and dollars as they could and getting the deal done in 20 minutes so Haliburton could get back to his dinner in Los Angeles knowing he'd be a much richer man when the deal kicks in for the 2024-25 season.

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The Pacers' faith in Haliburton doesn't just come from the belief that he'll be able to replicate and build on a 2022-23 season in which he averaged 20.7 points and 10.4 assists per game and shot 40% from 3-point range, and they're not looking to pay him over a quarter of a billion dollars just because they think he's a nice guy. Their confidence in him comes from the way Haliburton the player and Haliburton the human intertwine and force multiply, and how his life philosophy can define a franchise's on- and off-court culture.

His combination of magician-level skill as a ball-handler and passer, coach-level understanding of the game and its geometry and sincere desire to see other people succeed set the tone for a fast-paced, high-flying, unequivocally fun style of play that elevates Haliburton's teammates. That style of play combined with his remarkable ability to relate to absolutely anyone help create a culture of unselfishness that permeates the locker room and carries into the community outside of it, defining the franchise's public face. He makes the Pacers a more appealing destination for players looking for a new home.

In 20 months since the trade, Haliburton has caused Pritchard to entirely reconsider the timeline he had in mind for a rebuild to take the Pacers back to Eastern Conference contender status. In his first full season, Haliburton led the Pacers to a 10-win improvement and a 35-47 finish. With the Pacers' 2023-24 season set to begin Wednesday with a 7 p.m. home game against the Wizards, Haliburton and his teammates sound realistic when they say they expect to take the Pacers back to the postseason this year for the first time since 2021 and the best-of-seven playoffs for the first time since the COVID bubble in 2020.

"We have this amazing quarterback point guard," Pritchard said in April at his end-of-season press conference. "I've never been around a more complete, empathetic, understanding-of-what-the-real-world-is, loving, taking-care-of-the-small-people, truly-committed-to-the-community leader like him. I've never seen it. I've never seen a connecter like Tyrese ever. Like, ever."

Haliburton has been building toward becoming this kind of leader since his infancy. He's been molded by the teachings of his parents but driven by an internal will that sustained him even when other coaches, scouts and analysts couldn't see what Pritchard, Carlisle and the Pacers see now. Keeping an ever-present smile and positive energy to keep others' spirits high takes work and intentionality on his part, but his efforts are fueled by the same force that drew him to the game of basketball in the first place.

"We figured it out real quick because it's very simple," John Haliburton said. "Are you ready for this? It's very simple. Joy. You see that smile on his face? That's real. Joy."

'Joy at all times'

John Haliburton is quick to point out that he never pushed basketball on Tyrese -- in fact, if he had his druthers and Tyrese's mother Brenda hadn't objected, Tyrese would have given football more of a chance.

John Haliburton did, however, instill the idea of putting others before oneself through word and deed. He wanted all of his children to notice the ways he tried to help less fortunate friends, family members and people in the community and how he always tried to connect with others. He also made sure that they knew that their childhood friends were always welcome in their home and if they were ever in need of food or clothing or a place to stay, they could find it in the Haliburton home.

"I raised my kids to care for people, to do for people," John said. "I told them, ‘God is good. Give God the praise and God the glory.' I always believed that God blessed me, and I like to bless other people because when you bless other people, you get it back twofold, then you give it again and you get it threefold. Then you give it again and you keep getting it back and you get it back so much you don't even know what to do with it. Tyrese watched me how I care about people, how I don't mind going out of my way to care about people, and he believes in the same things."

But even though John never forced basketball on Tyrese, John had Tyrese around basketball from the time he was an infant. Not long before Tyrese was born, John was convinced to coach a middle school girls basketball team at a Catholic school in Oshkosh. Once Tyrese could walk, he wanted to go wherever his dad went, so he was constantly at practice and the players acted as de facto babysitters. John would take five players and work with them on one end of the floor and the other five would entertain Tyrese on the other end. Then they would switch.

Soon, John noticed that Tyrese always wanted to have a basketball in his hands -- even when John tried to put a football in them -- and that he was becoming more and more comfortable with dribbling it and handling it. When Tyrese started to play the game on an organized level, John suggested Tyrese watch clips of his favorite player, someone whose unselfish style of play and joy for the game matched his own values -- Magic Johnson.

So Tyrese watched YouTube highlights of Johnson and the Showtime Lakers, and then eventually longer clips, game film, interviews and documentaries. In Magic, he saw one of the most supremely talented players to ever walk the Earth, but also traits that matched his father.

"I think my personality is a very big reflection of what my dad’s personality is," Tyrese said. "At the same time, I think I saw qualities that Magic had in terms of the smile he had on his face and the joy he played with. I saw that in my dad’s personality, who my dad is. I saw that in my dad all the time. He sees Magic as the basketball side of that, he wants me to be that way. I think more so than Magic, he wants me to be like him and my personality to be like his. Just to have joy at all times and be the best version of who I am."

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The more Tyrese watched Magic, the more he wanted to be like him. He also started watching basketball at about the time LeBron James entered the league and he noticed the similarities in the way they were so devoted to involving their teammates. Once he started playing point guard as a fourth-grader, he got the appeal of making sure all of his teammates got to share in the feeling of scoring and winning.

"When we were little we used to beat everybody by a lot of points," Tyrese said. "I would just make a challenge for myself, by the time we get up by 30, how do I get the guys who never get in, how do I get them shots? Coach would let me play with the guys at the end of the bench and I would never shoot it and just get it to them. That became more fun for me than scoring. Basketball is a five-player game, only five people can play, but when you’re growing up there’s 10 players on a team usually and some kids, they can go a tournament and score two points, but they’re gonna remember those two points. Since I was a kid, that’s always been fun."

As he got into high school, he got a better sense of the value of getting his teammates activated early and how they could perform better on both ends if they got to put the ball in the hole. Sometimes his coaches thought he took it too far and passed up shots he should have been the one to take.

"I played the game myself all the way to the highest level and I have never seen a kid or coached a kid or had a teammate that had the thoughts (Haliburton) has when he goes into a game," said Frank Schade, Haliburton's coach for his first three seasons at Oshkosh North and himself a former NBA player in the 1970s. "He does not care how many points he scores. All he wants to do is keep everybody happy and he wants to win."

Every year he took more shots, but he still pushed back on the idea that he should make himself the priority. He knew how much better his teammates could play when they felt involved and saw the ball go in.

"His comment was one time, 'Listen, Webbs, So and so’s 10-footer versus mine, I know if he hits that shot, he’s going to be playing harder on defense, he’s going to be running harder,'" said Brad Weber, an assistant under Schade who became head coach at Oshkosh North when Schade retired before Haliburton's senior year. "That has been Tyrese. He wants to win. And if that means you need 20 assists out of me, I’m going to give you 20 assists. If that means you need 20 shot attempts, that’s fine, I’ll give you 20. But if it’s in his mind 50-50, we’re equal, he’s going to always give it to his teammate because he knows how that’s going to motivate and inspire them."

'We got to get him'

Haliburton's approach to the game paid off, but not immediately. Though he helped lead Oshkosh North to the Wisconsin state title game as a junior, he was under recruited until the summer before his senior year for several reasons, most of them physical, but one a product of his values.

For one thing, he was very skinny. He had a hard time putting weight and he wasn't nearly as much of a fan of the weight room as he was of skill work and film study.

Another was a funky-looking jump shot that was put together when he was little and had to push from the hip to reach the bucket.

But a third key reason was loyalty.

Bryan Johnikin was the coach who took Haliburton's jumper -- which was already effective in its funkiness -- and made it game-functional. Even when he was shooting from the hip he could knock it down, and Johnikin made sure his release point was higher by starting with Mikan drills under the basket and building out. It wasn't textbook, but it went in and Haliburton didn't have any problem keeping it from being blocked.

Johnikin coached a Milwaukee-based grassroots team called Wisconsin United which wasn't affiliated with any of the three sneaker company circuits -- Nike, Adidas or Under Armour. When it played in national tournaments, it was on the NY2LA circuit which college coaches were aware of but didn't make as high of a priority as the other three.

As a result Haliburton was under-exposed. Teammates of his, including Wisconsin native and current Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro -- left for shoe company teams and Johnikin suggested Haliburton do the same.

"I kinda told Ty, go play with the (Iowa) Barnstromers," Johnikin said. "Ty trusted me because I taught him a lot. I really did. I knew I could teach him more than other people. I was still gonna train him. I was just like, 'You need to be on a bigger stage. There’s not enough teams coming to watch us when you’re not a shoe company team.'"

But John and Brenda told Johnikin Tyrese wasn't going anywhere.

"I kinda told him that he was going to have to leave and his parents told me, “No, stick it out,'" Johnikin said. "'You’re teaching him, you got a relationship.'"

Johnikin told college coaches that to understand what Haliburton could do for their programs, they needed to watch him play a full game, not just make decisions based on highlight film or by looking at his frame. In the summer of 2017, enough of them finally took him up on that and his recruitment finally took off.

Neil Berry, then an assistant coach at Iowa State, had been watching Haliburton since he was a sophomore and agreed with Johnikin. Haliburton's skill set was good enough to allay his concerns about his frame, but Berry was much more impressed with the point guard's command of his team.

"Even the first time watching him, he had the motor and kind of a spirit about him that was like, this kid is intriguing," Berry said. "Just the way he carried himself. Even with a mistake he didn’t drop his head. When a teammate missed a shot, he didn’t have any poor body language. He just had an infectious energy. He was always dapping people up. You could tell. You could watch a game and tell teammates like this kid."

Berry maintained contact with the family and kept pushing head coach Steve Prohm to take a closer look at Haliburton. Then in July of 2017, Haliburton was at a tournament in Las Vegas at the same time Berry and his wife were having a child so Prohm had to go to the event. Even at that moment, Berry stayed in Prohm's ear about Haliburton, telling him he needed to make a decision. Prohm said he watched about two or three minutes of one of Haliburton's games and texted Berry, "Man, we got to go get him.'"

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"I think he just has such an amazing spirit when he plays," Prohm said. "Talking to his guys, talking to his coach, even in the way he was messing with the referees. He just has such an engaging spirit, such a bright personality, that was No. 1 especially at that spot."

Haliburton didn't have a Power 5 offer at that point and figured he'd be going to Northern Iowa, but Nebraska offered July 29, 2017. Iowa State followed immediately after and Cincinnati and Minnesota offered in September. The Cyclones kept up the intensity, though, and Haliburton committed on Sept. 18, 2017. With that out of the way, Haliburton led Oshkosh North to a state title in his senior year and was named Wisconsin Gatorade State Player of the Year with 22.9 points and 6.1 assists per game.

When he arrived at Iowa State in the fall of 2018 he was simply hoping not to redshirt, but by the season's second game he was in the starting lineup at shooting guard. He scored a modest 34 points in his first six games, but after the Cyclones played in the Maui Invitational that fall, Prohm hosted a scout at practice who told him not to expect Haliburton to be around too long.

"He asked me a couple questions about Haliburton and I answered them," Prohm said. "He said, ‘You know he’s going to be your highest draft pick don’t you?’ I said, 'Do you really think so?’ He said, ‘He’s got an amazing spirit. He listens. He’s coachable. He defers to the older guys from the standpoint of he listens and he lets them coach him. I would take him right now.’"

The rest, of course, is well-documented history. After a solid freshman season, he earned a spot on a loaded Team USA U19 team that claimed the World Cup, then was named All-Big 12 as a sophomore and was drafted by the Kings No. 12 overall. He was stunned when he was traded after 1 1/2 seasons, but after he got over the shock he realized he had a better chance to influence the Pacers' future than he ever would have had in Sacramento.

He hasn't played in the postseason yet but he immediately transformed the Pacers into a League Pass darling, one of the most entertaining teams in the league, especially among those who almost never get national broadcast airtime on ABC, ESPN or TNT. Last season the Pacers finished 10th in the NBA in scoring, sixth in 3-pointers, fifth in pace and first in fast break points. They were also statistically one of the most unselfish teams, finishing sixth in assists, averaging 27.0 on 42.0 field goals per game, and second in the NBA in passes according to the league's tracking data with 305 per game.

Those are signs of a team following its leader.

"He has changed the trajectory of this organization," Carlisle said at the extension press conference. "... He knows that today is symbolic of the responsibility and the commitment to lead. He has not dodged that one single bit. He wants the responsibility for being a great player and leading this organization."

Setting the tone for the franchise the way Haliburton does is a joyful responsibility, but it is still a responsibility. As easy as it looks for Haliburton to smile and stay positive, it does require intentionality on his part to maintain that every single day. But at every stage of his career, it has paid off.

Freeing himself from perfect

When Haliburton was in fourth grade and creating opportunities for teammates who were getting one bucket per game, he started to get a sense of how he could lift a team's entire vibe with the joy he brought to the floor.

But not long after that, he learned that his teams were becoming dependent on that joy. If he was sulking because something went wrong or even just quiet while processing a missed shot or a mistake, his teams suffered. His teammates needed his smile and his voice and they needed it every practice and every game. That wasn't easy, because Haliburton doesn't suppress emotion naturally.

"Fifth or sixth grade, that’s when I started having bad days on the court," Haliburton said. "It was becoming apparent I wasn’t, like, the best. That’s when I started playing on a national level. I’m just the type of person who wears his emotions on his sleeve. If I’m pissed, you can tell I’m pissed. If I’m happy, you can tell I’m happy. If I’m sad, you can tell I’m sad. I’m awful at hiding that. I think just from there, that’s something that’s been pointed out to me, just having an understanding (that it could affect other people)."

There's no place Haliburton has fewer bad days than on a basketball court, but he's also a perfectionist. Or perhaps more accurately, he has been in a long-term battle with perfectionism. He puts far too much time into skill work and conditioning and film study and the game in general to not be repulsed when he makes mistakes.

"When I was really little, I was such a perfectionist," Haliburton said. "I had to win everything. I would cry if I lost at anything. It’s kind of just part of who I am. Sometimes it’s still there and I just have to get out of my shell and do better."

If he gets too deep in his head about a mistake, the consequences can be far reaching.

"He didn’t always take things too well when it wasn’t going very good for him," Schade said. "It bothered him to the point where he could get an attitude once in a while too. We had to straighten some of that out."

What they had to get across to him is a player in his position couldn't possibly be spotless. They had to push him to shoot more and when he did, he had to realize that not every shot was going to go in. And if he was going to pass as much as he did, he had to realize that every once in a while, one of those passes was either going to sail wide of its target or be intercepted by a well-schooled defender.

"He's worked on freeing himself from being perfect and just embracing that journey," Weber said. "Turnovers used to just consume him. He holds himself to such a high standard, especially as a passer, but he’s freed himself because he knows how much the ball is in his hands, he’s going to turn it over, but he also knows that he’s going to make so many more good plays than bad plays."

But Haliburton acknowledges that he's still not completely free in that regard. He still has to tell himself to let go of every mistake. Having a track record and an established position in the NBA helps and he knows that one mishap is not going to dramatically alter his career, but he still has to fight the natural instinct to dwell.

"The most beautiful word to ever say to anybody is 'Next,'" John said. "In other words, let's move on. We can't stay there because ain't nothing waiting on us. Let's move on."

As much forethought and work as that takes, Haliburton's teammates don't see a man who seems burdened but a man who seems to alleviate their burdens, and that serves as a payoff for all of the investment he puts into them.

"He's just a fun guy to be around," said veteran wing Buddy Hield, one of his closest friends on the team. "I think his energy is infectious. His sense of humor just has everybody connected. Once you meet somebody who lights a room up, it’s hard not to like a guy like Tyrese. He just brings everybody together. … That’s his God’s gift, man. Connection.”

Indeed connection is the rock on which Haliburton is helping rebuild the Pacers' franchise and even on the days when he has to fake happiness, the desire to optimize that connection is real and dependable enough to invest in for at least the next six years, and they hope many more beyond that.

"He has an appetite for the responsibility that comes with being a franchise player," Carlisle said. "There’s very little not to love about the guy."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Tyrese Haliburton accelerated Pacers' success after trade from Kings