Tyrese Haliburton apparently has an unexpected muse this postseason.
Jared Weiss of The Athletic reported this week that the Indiana Pacers star Haliburton has been getting advice from an unlikely source over the course of the playoffs — Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid.
Weiss notes that Embiid has been texting with Haliburton throughout the postseason, even imploring the All-Star guard to shoot more. Haliburton also reportedly credits Embiid for their “keeping it 100” conversations that have helped him “build immunity from rejection.”
The feature by Weiss takes a deep dive into Haliburton’s resilience and mental toughness, including through his struggles on the court earlier this season. You can read it in full here.
Haliburton does share a trainer (renowned skills coach Drew Hanlen) with the former NBA MVP Embiid and was also teammates with Embiid on the gold medal-winning USA Basketball team at the 2024 Paris Olympics. But the connection here is still a surprising one.
Plenty will point out that Haliburton is trying to get to at least the conference finals this year and already did lead the Pacers there last season. Meanwhile, Embiid (who was drafted in 2014 to Haliburton’s 2020) still has yet to even make a single conference finals appearance over his entire career. Additionally, Haliburton is a playmaking point guard and Embiid is a bruising center, so their games do not really have much overlap.
But nonetheless, it is certainly a nice gesture by Embiid (who played just 19 games this season due to injury and saw his 76ers go 24-58 and miss the postseason altogether) to offer whatever pointers he can to Haliburton. The 25-year-old Haliburton has been arguably the single biggest star of the playoffs thus far, and Embiid is clearly happy to help him shine.
