To say that Tyrese Haliburton's trade to the Indiana Pacers was a shocker would be a complete understatement. Many considered the 21-year-old to be a key part of the Sacramento Kings' core so it was totally unexpected that he was going to be moved prior to the deadline.
Haliburton recently joined ESPN's NBA Today with Malika Andrews and the rest of the crew and the 6-foot-5 combo guard revealed his true feelings towards the move. Haliburton admitted that he was completely stunned by the trade that came out of nowhere:
“I got a call from my agent about 30 minutes before [the trade] and he said, ‘I think you might get traded,'” Haliburton said. “I thought it was a joke, if I'm being honest. Next thing I knew our GM called me 30 minutes later, he was like, ‘We're trading you to Indiana.' I was gone.”
And that was that. As it turns out, even Haliburton himself was confident that he was staying in Sacramento despite the trade rumors. He could not have been more wrong.
“Yeah, to say the least,” Haliburton responded when asked if he was shocked about the news. “Absolutely had no indication or no idea that I was getting traded. My friends were messing with me like, ‘Are you scared for the deadline?' I'm like, ‘I'm good.'”
After just a season and a half in Sacramento, Haliburton is now part of the Indiana Pacers where he has been balling out since his arrival. It's interesting to see how Indiana's new backcourt will function once Malcolm Brogdon is healthy again. Needless to say, the Pacers are a team to watch the rest of the way.