Tyrese Haliburton Has Simple Answer for Why He Loves His Job

Haliburton gets it.

Tyrese Haliburton on how he takes criticism in stride. / NBA

The Indiana Pacers outclassed the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of their playoff series and are now one win away from the Eastern Conference finals. They were able to do this despite their best player, Tyrese Haliburton, being a relative non-factor with 11 points on 3-for-8 shooting. Haliburton, who by virtue of not being made available by the team following the Pacers' Game 3 loss and therefore had to answer a bunch of questions about it, was once again asked big-picture stuff like how he deals with criticism on Sunday. To which he had a pretty straightforward and honest answer.

"It's just basketball, bro," Haliburton said. "I get paid a lot of money to play a child's game ... I love my job. Criticism is sometimes warranted, sometimes it's not."

"It's just basketball bro. I get paid a lot of money to play a child's game… I love my job… Criticism is sometimes warranted, sometimes it's not."

— Tyrese Haliburton 🗣️

(via @NBA)pic.twitter.com/oHCyxvHAoQ

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 12, 2025

Haliburton added that he has a lot of fun at work so he doesn't even thing of his job as a job. Which makes sense because playing sports is something people enjoy very much before they are paid handsomely to do so.

These are refreshing comments and a continuation of Haliburton doing a really nice job in the public eye this postseason. He struck the right notes when his father crossed the line with some tower-waving in the face of one of the NBA's best players. He's been able to address the overrated stuff without making it his own personality. Now he's correctly pointing out that basketball is just basketball and criticism comes with the job.

It's all going well.

---

More NBA on Sports Illustrated

feed