Tyrese Haliburton clashed with an NBA writer over a harshly deleted tweet about the playoffs

Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Halliburton had confirmations ready before a recent interview with Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor as he confronted the podcaster over deleted playoff tweets on X, formerly Twitter. While recovering from Achilles’ tear, Halliburton will help the Pacers on the sideline in 2025-26. However, he hasn’t forgotten the criticism he received before reaching the 2025 NBA Finals.

Halliburton and the Pacers’ unexpected run through the Eastern Conference surprised many, including O’Connor, whose old comments about Halliburton reappeared in his interview with the Pacers’ starting point guard, according to Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor Show.

“You tweeted, ‘Tyreese Halliburton too much perimeter on offense. Lacks aggression in the paint. No willingness to take the midrange. Too many cones on defense. Away from the ball. Inexplicably bad five game. He needs to take this offseason to figure out who he wants to be.’ That’s what you tweeted,” Haliburton said. “Now I’m going to say I had a really bad game. I remember that.”

O’Connor admits his breakdown of Halliburton’s game was “too harsh”.

“There are a lot of statements out there,” Halliburton added. “It’s not like, ‘he needs to shoot more from mid-range, I think he can be better defensively.’ It was just like, “He’s withdrawn, he’s not shooting up the middle.” It was quite a statement; you were very… you know what i mean. I’m just putting it out there.”

O’Connor has since deleted the post on X, formerly Twitter.

“It sounded like a shock jock radio host to me,” O’Connor said of his quote. “But I’ll tell you what Tires, about your mid-range jumper before you go. You were like an almost 50% guy on mid-range jumpers. And that’s the source of me saying if the step-back three isn’t there, the mid-range pull-up is for you.”

Halliburton says that’s a testament to the repetition he’s put into his mid-range shot.

“I feel like I’ve done it more,” Haliburton said.

How Tyrese Haliburton will help the Pacers in 2025-26

As head coach Rick Carlisle is preparing for life without Pacers’ Tyrese Halliburtonit will be a unique experience for the young guard. It’s a Halliburton he rejoiceshe told USA Today.

“I think whenever you can’t play, you get a new perspective on things,” Halliburton said. “I think there’s always time to learn and grow, and I think this year, not being able to play, I get to see the game differently, potentially see it more from a coach’s perspective, where I don’t always see eye to eye with our coaching staff and what they see. I’m looking forward to being able to try the game without playing a whole year.”

The Pacers will face the Spurs in the preseason finale on Friday.