Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton: Dad ‘Wasn’t In The Right At All’ For Confrontation With Giannis Antetokounmpo

Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton just hit a game-winning layup to seal a thrilling overtime win and the series against the Bucks.

A wild and well-deserved celebration followed. But so did a crazy confrontation between Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo and Indiana wing Bennedict Mathurin. That was followed by a tiff between Antetokounmpo and Haliburton’s dad, John Haliburton.

Tyrese Haliburton said he was already in the postgame locker room by the time those incidents began. He also said he’s already spoken with his father about it.

“I had no idea it happened until I got to the back,” Haliburton said, via Greg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star. “Me and my pops have talked about that, and I don’t agree with what transpired there from him. I think basketball is basketball, and let’s keep it on the court. We had a conversation, and I think he should just allow me to play basketball and stay over there. I’ll come to him to celebrate.

“I talked with him. I’ll talk with Giannis eventually about it. I don’t think my pops was in the right at all there. Unfortunate what happened there. This series was a lot of war of words, a lot of antics, a lot of stuff going back and forth. That’s part of the rivalry, what we’ve built here.

“It’s unfortunate what happened there. I don’t agree with what happened there. We’ll have a conversation. Everyone’s grown men. We’ll just go from there.”

Haliburton’s game-winning layup in overtime came with 1.3 seconds to go. He has a reputation of being all class, all the time, so it’s easy to understand why he may not want his dad walking on the floor and talking trash.

Indiana begins its series against the top-seeded Cavaliers on Sunday at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.