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Sixers Rookie Asked Tyrese Haliburton a Great Question at NBA Finals Media Day
When Philadelphia 76ers rookie Jared McCain dreamed of reaching the NBA Finals in his first year as a pro, he probably didn’t think the opportunity would come as a player correspondent for the league.
But while the circumstances might be different than he initially imagined, McCain made the most of his time as a media member ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Oklahoma City.
McCain, a budding guard himself, first asked Tyrese Haliburton how he balances being a facilitator for the team while also attacking the basket and getting up his own shots, and the Pacers star responded with some sage advice.
“There’s ebbs and flows to it. There’s never a consistent right answer. I’m at my best when I’m more aggressive, but I think every game calls for something different,” Haliburton said. “I’m not perfect. I have bad games, and I’ll have bad games where I shoot five shots and pass the ball too much, and I’ll have a game where I shoot too much and probably could have passed a little more.”
McCain also got a question in with NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, asking him how he handles the mental exhaustion that comes with a grueling schedule.
“Honestly, I completely plug out,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “I turn my TV off so there’s no basketball highlights going. I don’t watch basketball. I just spend time with my family, my friends. I try to remove myself completely from basketball because it just consumes so much of my life and my day. Then when it’s time to plug back into it, I’m eager to get back into it, like I missed it.”
McCain has had a large and social personality ever since basketball fans first started to get to know him through his social media accounts in college. It’s clear that those skills have carried over.
While it’s still way too early for him to be thinking about his next act as a professional, it’s not hard to see how he would be an asset in the booth for whoever holds the NBA media rights in 2055.
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Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.