Tyrese Haliburton Had Thoughtful Quote on His Growing Friendship With Caitlin Clark

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Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton may not be as well-versed in nationwide needle-moving stardom as WNBA star Caitlin Clark, but he and Clark remain good friends.

Haliburton welcomed Clark with open arms when the former Iowa star was drafted by the Indiana Fever in April, and since then, the two Indiana icons have grown quite close. Haliburton could be seen frequenting several of Clark’s home games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse cheering her on, and it’s wholly likely Clark will return the favor this upcoming NBA season.

Haliburton spoke at length about his friendship with Clark at the Pacers’ media day on Monday, sharing his mindset on how he constantly tries to be a supportive friend for the Fever rookie.

“I’ve grown to be pretty close with Caitlin and (Connor),” Haliburton said. “Me, her, him and my girlfriend Jade all have a group chat that we talk in pretty often about everything. So it’s been cool to just grow my friendship with her. Everybody just wants to get more from her, take more from her, get more answers to things, and I don’t want to be that. We’re friends… If she wants to talk basketball, we’ll talk basketball, and if not, I’m totally fine with that as well. But I think we’ve built a pretty cool friendship, and it’s been really cool to see her grow this last year.”

Friendship goals. 

The state of Indiana has plenty to look forward to with both Clark and Haliburton in town for the foreseeable future, and the Pacers star added that he’s excited to see the young Fever team achieve more postseason success in the years to come. 

As for the Pacers, they went 47-35 last season before getting swept by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Haliburton, who averaged 20.1 points and 10.9 assists in the regular season, suffered a hamstring injury during the Finals series and a minor leg injury during Team USA’s gold-medal run at the Paris Games, but he appears fully healthy as the start of the new NBA season nears.


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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.