The Indiana Pacers point guard&mdash;and two-time NBA All-Star&mdash;is cementing his place among the league's elite while keeping his humility intact.&nbsp;

PHOTOGRAPHY&nbsp;Cristian Hunter
STYLED BY: Oretta Corbelli
It&rsquo;s not the reaction you expect from the NBA player who mimicked Reggie Miller&rsquo;s infamous choke gesture after a stunning overtime win against the New York Knicks, or was name-dropped in Rob49&rsquo;s viral hit &ldquo;WTHelly.&rdquo; But when asked what it&rsquo;s felt like to go from a kid playing hoops in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to a famous pro basketball player, Tyrese Haliburton raises an eyebrow in confusion. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m F-list,&rdquo; he says of his celebrity status, an honest laugh emanating over Zoom. Perhaps to those who never turn on ESPN, but in the world of professional sports, the 6-foot-5 Indiana Pacers point guard ranks much higher in the alphabet.
After being picked number 12 by the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the 2020 NBA draft, Hali&mdash;the nickname he goes by, which also appears on his Zoom tile&mdash;was named to the All-Rookie First Team and minted an All-Star in 2023 and 2024. He led the Pacers to their first Eastern Conference Finals in a decade and won a gold medal with Team USA at the Paris Olympics (famously joking that he got an A on a group project he didn&rsquo;t contribute to, given his limited playing time). Haliburton&rsquo;s impressive performance during the 2025 Playoffs helped the Pacers reach Game 7 of the Finals&mdash;only for him to tear his Achilles tendon in the first quarter and watch the Oklahoma City Thunder go home with the Larry O&rsquo;Brien trophy. Crushing, yes, but Haliburton is all of 26 years old, and his story is far from sad.

&ldquo;If you ask my brothers, they would probably tell you that I was the golden child&mdash;the one that was babied the most and coddled the most,&rdquo; Haliburton says of his upbringing. Despite being out for the season as he rehabs his injury, he&rsquo;s on the road with the Pacers in Boston, speaking by a window in his hotel room. Wearing a gray hoodie and a backwards black baseball cap embroidered with his Puma Hali logo, he describes his childhood in idyllic terms: He grew up on the north side of Oshkosh, where he &ldquo;really enjoyed school&rdquo; and played baseball, basketball, and football. His father, John Haliburton, was one of few Black men in the area when he moved there in the late 1990s, and he quickly became involved in local sports, refereeing basketball and coaching women&rsquo;s basketball teams. As such, &ldquo;When I was born, people always joked that I was like the city&rsquo;s little brother,&rdquo; Haliburton says. He has three actual brothers&mdash;two older and one younger. &ldquo;My two older brothers are from my mom&rsquo;s previous marriage [and] they&rsquo;re 100 percent white,&rdquo; he explains, adding that they grew up getting a lot of questions about how they could be related. &ldquo;Even sometimes now people can&rsquo;t grasp that it&rsquo;s possible for me to have white brothers,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But my dad didn&rsquo;t allow us to acknowledge each other as half brothers. [He] didn&rsquo;t believe in that title, so we were always just like, That&rsquo;s my brother.&rdquo;

Going to the NBA was always a dream, but not one Haliburton thought was realistic. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t necessarily this highly recruited kid,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;My offers were all from smaller schools.&rdquo; Even after accepting a scholarship to play at Iowa State, Haliburton figured he&rsquo;d use it as a vehicle to earn a business management degree and maybe play overseas for a bit before getting a job. (He&rsquo;s aware that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s the most NBA-player answer,&rdquo; but he&rsquo;s emphatic that he planned to go into fashion.) A self-professed &ldquo;helpless&rdquo; freshman, he arrived at college not knowing how to do laundry or dishes, and quickly befriended the more capable cheerleaders across the hall. &ldquo;One of the girls, who is my best friend to this day, introduced me to my now-fianc&eacute;e,&rdquo; he says of meeting Jade Jones in 2019. Their first date was a Chick-fil-A dinner in their apartment parking lot, after which they watched High School Musical. They&rsquo;ve been together ever since.
Haliburton&rsquo;s affinity for the Cyclone State is such that he uses the word we when talking about Iowa. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a professional sports team, so Iowa and Iowa State are kind of the big deal,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;That was really fun for me to be able to experience.&rdquo; After a successful freshman year and a gold-medal win as a member of the Under 19 World Cup team, Haliburton&rsquo;s NBA potential shifted. &ldquo;It went from, Oh, he could maybe go to the NBA, to No, no, no, no, he&rsquo;s going to be a surefire lottery pick,&rdquo; he says. While Haliburton debated whether or not to go pro after his sophomore season&mdash;he loved college that much&mdash;his coach, Steve Prohm, was already showing him the locker room door. &ldquo;He was basically like, I can&rsquo;t allow you to pass up that life-changing money. So even if you&rsquo;re considering coming back, it&rsquo;s not even an option. That made the decision pretty easy for me.&rdquo;

Wearing a floral suit with his Oshkosh area code printed in one side of his jacket and Black Lives Matter inscribed in the other, Haliburton was drafted virtually amid the COVID pandemic. &ldquo;Life was different,&rdquo; he says of his rookie season. &ldquo;There were no fans at the games; we were playing in empty arenas. It was really weird. Still, I really enjoyed my time in Sacramento. I was looking forward to being there [for] a long time in my career. And then obviously, things went a little different.&rdquo;
In February 2022 Haliburton was blindsided by a trade to the Pacers. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I handled it the greatest because I was very scorned by it and hurt,&rdquo; he says, adding that he &ldquo;probably talked about it way too much.&rdquo; While at the time he felt like he was being told he wasn&rsquo;t good enough, in retrospect, he realizes it was more of a business transaction than a personal slight. And &ldquo;it&rsquo;s probably the greatest thing that&rsquo;s ever happened to me in my life,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I got to come [to Indiana] and help to build something, and it really forced me to grow up and take on a leadership role. It&rsquo;s taught me more than anything that God doesn&rsquo;t make mistakes.&rdquo;

There's probably nobody out there that's a bigger critic of me than me.&nbsp;

It&rsquo;s in Indiana where Haliburton&rsquo;s ascent accelerated. &ldquo;It was a slow burn, but when it happened, it happened really fast,&rdquo; he says of his increased visibility. In 2023 the Pacers made it to the championship game of the inaugural in-season tournament. Though they lost to the Lakers, &ldquo;it was a big deal and I was playing really well,&rdquo; Haliburton says. &ldquo;That was the first time that I really heard my name on ESPN, and I was like, Oh my God, they&rsquo;re talking about me? I don&rsquo;t care what they&rsquo;re saying&mdash;positive, negative&mdash;I don&rsquo;t care; they&rsquo;re talking about me.&rdquo; That same year, NBA All-Star Weekend took place in Indianapolis. &ldquo;I kind of felt like prom king,&rdquo; he says of how the city celebrated him. Last season, Haliburton set an NBA record when he recorded multiple games with at least 30 points, at least 15 assists, and zero turnovers. And then there&rsquo;s &ldquo;WTHelly.&rdquo;
&ldquo;As I started to play better, the song was rising at the same time,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I feel like I helped it by playing better, but it helped my story too, right?&rdquo; His enthusiasm is immortalized in a video of him rapping the name drop as he drives around Indianapolis. The clip appears in Season 2 of the Netflix docuseries Starting 5, which follows Haliburton, Jaylen Brown, Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and James Harden throughout the 2024&ndash;2025 season. &ldquo;They did a great job telling my story,&rdquo; he says of the show. Cameras captured everything from Haliburton&rsquo;s fast-food drive-thru order to his engagement on Iowa State&rsquo;s campus. And if there was any doubt where Haliburton gets his outsized personality from, Starting 5 confirmed it&rsquo;s from his father. &ldquo;My dad is just a ball of energy,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;People think that he wants attention or that he&rsquo;s trying to steal a spotlight, but that&rsquo;s just who my dad is. He&rsquo;s very joyful in life.&rdquo;

Haliburton is careful not to let his early success, or the attention that&rsquo;s come with it, go to his head. There&rsquo;s a host of peers and strangers who don&rsquo;t want it to, either.
Last year, The Athletic&rsquo;s anonymous NBA player poll voted Haliburton the most overrated player in the league. Pundits have called him awkward, too generous, and a guard who lacks physicality. &ldquo;Honestly, at a younger age, it really got to me,&rdquo; he says of the criticism. Though he still pays attention to the hot takes deriding his capabilities&mdash;&ldquo;I would lie if I told you I didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he says&mdash;it doesn&rsquo;t affect him nearly as much. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re playing well, you&rsquo;re the best thing in the world, and when you&rsquo;re not playing well, you&rsquo;re the worst thing in the world. That is something that is just a part of our society today&mdash;everybody lives in hyperbole, especially on social media.&rdquo;
He now finds the criticism more funny than hurtful. Plus, no matter how harsh analysts and strangers on the internet can be, &ldquo;there&rsquo;s probably nobody out there that&rsquo;s a bigger critic of me than me.&rdquo;

Open conversations with therapists and work on his mental health, he says, make criticism easier to handle. But throughout this conversation, another factor comes up over and over again: faith. &ldquo;Growing up I didn&rsquo;t go to church at all, really,&rdquo; he says, surmising that his parents simply got caught up in life and raising four kids. Still, his father prayed often and routinely spoke about how blessed their family was. &ldquo;I understood that God existed, but I didn&rsquo;t necessarily understand the Bible,&rdquo; Haliburton says. &ldquo;It was kind of intimidating.&rdquo; In college he started joining his teammates at chapel, and during the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, Coach Morris Michalski introduced him to Scripture. Haliburton found a mentor in former Kings teammate Harrison Barnes, who further encouraged him to grow in his faith. Now, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m fully rooted in Christ and my relationship with the Lord,&rdquo; he says, adding that he goes to church as often as possible and encourages his family to join. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m always like, Come on, let&rsquo;s go&mdash;let&rsquo;s go; let&rsquo;s go to church; let&rsquo;s go to church. Sometimes they drag their feet, but the times I get &rsquo;em to go is really special.&rdquo;

That conviction has been crucial to Haliburton&rsquo;s recovery from his Achilles injury. &ldquo;It was really tough for me to accept for a long time,&rdquo; he says of the experience. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s still kind of hard. I was so close to my dream. It was like I was reaching to grab it and I was right there, and then I got pushed off a building. I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;ll ever fully move on, but I&rsquo;m trying my best.&rdquo; After watching the Pacers lose from the locker room, Haliburton went home, cried himself to sleep, and was on a flight to New York the next morning to have surgery.
&ldquo;I spent many nights, many days asking the Lord why [and] to make sense of it,&rdquo; Haliburton says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that that&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ll understand right now. But at some point it&rsquo;s going to click. And maybe I never get the chance to win a championship again, or I never do win a championship&mdash;that could happen. But when I have those feelings and those thoughts, I think about the joy in our city,&rdquo; he says of the playoff run, &ldquo;and [the joy] that it brought to me and my peers and family and friends. I look forward to chasing that again.&rdquo;

This interview coincides with week 31 of his recovery, and both his right Achilles and spirits are in a good place. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really doing everything at this point,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m running, starting to play a little 3-on-3 and 4-on-4&hellip; I&rsquo;m thankful for the village that has been behind me during this time. My friends and my family have been so amazing and looked out for me, and my organization has looked out for me.&rdquo;
Rehab entails a lot of downtime, and in recent months, Haliburton has spent a portion of his listening to fashion podcasts, including Beyond the Garment with Drew Joiner. This is not surprising for a man who arrived at Indianapolis&rsquo;s Gainbridge Fieldhouse in a double-breasted balloon-sleeved Simone Rocha coat, or pulled up to Madison Square Garden wearing a grey leather trench over a camel leather suit&mdash;all by Prada. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t necessarily love the word preppy; I feel like it puts me in a box, but I guess that that&rsquo;s correct,&rdquo; Haliburton says when describing his style. He previously worked with stylist Olivier Rogers, whom he credits with making his style a little more grown-up, but the outside looks he&rsquo;s worn to support his team this season&mdash;among them a pink cardigan with brown trousers that the internet jokingly dubbed substitute teacher&ndash;like&mdash;were all him. &ldquo;I love button-ups and slacks and sweaters, but I also love putting workwear in there, with Carhartt jackets and jeans and boots,&rdquo; he says. Some of his pieces, like his sweater vests and khakis, are unassuming. The large, gleaming diamond studs he&rsquo;s wearing are not.

When you're playing well, you're the best thing in the world, and when you're not playing well, you're the worst thing in the world.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Once I signed my contract, I started to get more jewelry,&rdquo; Haliburton says, referencing his five-year deal with the Pacers. He often wears a custom diamond chain by A Jewellers, featuring his signature logo, and his ever-growing watch collection includes a Cartier Crash, a Cartier Pebble, a Cartier Bamboo Coussin, a gold Presidential Rolex Day-Date (the first watch he ever bought), and &ldquo;tons&rdquo; of vintage Movados. His very first fashion splurge? &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a great question,&rdquo; he says, taking a moment to jog his memory. &ldquo;Honestly, it wasn&rsquo;t on me; it was on my fianc&eacute;e. She&rsquo;s two years older than me, and for her graduation present, I got her a Louis Vuitton tote bag and a YSL&hellip; What does everybody have? Is it a wallet? It&rsquo;s like a bigger wallet.&rdquo; (He&rsquo;s describing a clutch.) &ldquo;She didn&rsquo;t even know what YSL was, so it&rsquo;s funny to look back on where life was at that time to where we are now.&rdquo;

Jacket, top, and shorts GCDS Socks and shoes PUMA

Haliburton signed with Puma in 2024 and has since released a signature shoe, the Puma Hali 1, as well as a T-shirt emblazoned with Overrate That. Because he likes to wear his baseball caps backwards, before Puma made a handful for him with his own logo, &ldquo;I [had] the MLB logo on my forehead all the time, and that really didn&rsquo;t make sense,&rdquo; he says. He hopes to release his caps via retail soon.
Haliburton expects to return to the court at the start of the 2026&ndash;2027 season, but before then, he&rsquo;s set to wed Jones in August. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s from a town of 1,500 people, so life is very different for her now than how she grew up,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Of course there are people who are trolling me and talking shit to me, but people do the same to her, and she&rsquo;s handled it so well, with so much grace. I&rsquo;m really thankful that she&rsquo;s in my life and is going to be my life partner.&rdquo; From the way his face lights up, the wedding can&rsquo;t come soon enough. &ldquo;Not only do I get to marry this woman,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;but we are known to throw a pretty good party.&rdquo;

GROOMING: Tarin Dhomraii and Brenda Sotolongo PRODUCED BY: Hanna Benn PHOTO ASSISTANTS: Jes Nijjer and Michael Schrader

Tyrese Haliburton Is Playing the Long Game

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