When the Sacramento Kings traded Tyrese Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers midway through the 2021-22 season, the young guard admitted that he had nothing but “resentment” towards the organization. After all, he believed the Sac-Town franchise saw him as part of their future.
Over eight months later, however, Haliburton is just thankful that the Kings sent him to the Pacers in the deal. In fact, the 22-year-old even said that “it’s probably one of the best things that could happen for my career.”
As Haliburton pointed out, being sent to the Pacers basically “accelerated” the growth he wants for himself. With the Kings, he was playing behind De'Aaron Fox and was often only the third option on offense. In Indiana, not only is he being groomed as the leader of the team, he has also been trusted to become their main weapon as the franchise builds for the future. So far this 2022-23 season, the former lottery pick is averaging 25.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 9.7 assists while shooting 50.0 percent from the field.
“Looking back…it’s probably one of the best things that could happen for my career”
Tyrese Haliburton breaks down his original frustrations of getting traded by the Kings last year.@Pacers | #PacersTwitter pic.twitter.com/N1OLmDhMMl
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) October 23, 2022
This is not the first time Tyrese Haliburton has expressed his thoughts on the Kings-Pacers trade. He shared the same sentiments back in August, noting that after the anger he felt towards the Kings, he realized that joining Indiana is “such a blessing” for him.
“It’s so easy now to look at it that way, but it’s a complete blessing for me to be in the situation that I’m in, to have the ability to showcase what I can do and play my natural position. It’s helping me a ton. So, you know, it’s love at the end of the day. It is what it is. Just taking a step back and self-reflecting on a lot of different things in life, I think it made me a bigger person and just have more self-awareness,” Haliburton said at the time.
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