A frustrating season-ending loss for Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks quickly turned strange when the Bucks star was involved in an incident with the father of Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton.
A Haliburton layup put the Pacers ahead by a point with just over a second remaining. Antetokounmpo then inbounded the ball to teammate Gary Trent Jr., whose desperation cross-court shot was off the mark, ending both the game and series. After Trent’s shot missed, the elder Haliburton walked onto the court and stood holding a towel with his son’s likeness directly in front of Antetokounmpo, appearing to taunt him.
Here’s another angle of Haliburton’s dad and Giannis. This is insane behavior by an old ass man.
Watch the guy in the black jersey initially sitting down in a chair with the towel on the baseline pic.twitter.com/4ldMy1Oxke
— sqr (@squaresense) April 30, 2025
The two exchanged words again before Antetokounmpo left the court. During his press conference later, Antetokounmpo discussed what happened.
“One thing I’ll say is that I believe like being humble in victory — that’s the way I am,” he said. “Now, there can be a lot of people out there that are like, ‘No. When you win the game, you gotta talk s***. It’s a green light for you to be disrespectful towards somebody else. I disagree. I’ve won a championship. They haven’t. OK, and that doesn’t say anything. I’m not trying to minimize their effort.”
“There can be a lot of people out there that are like… ‘When you win the game, talk shit. It’s a green light for you to be disrespectful toward somebody else.’ I disagree.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo talks about his conflict with Tyrese Haliburton’s dad.pic.twitter.com/Mem5RhX9Zw
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 30, 2025
Antetokounmpo then recalled that when the Bucks won the championship in 2021, his mom was scared to cross the line to hug her son.
“Losing a game, emotions run high. Which, at the moment, I thought he was a fan. But then I realized he was Tyrese’s son — which I love Tyrese. I think he’s a great competitor. It was his dad, sorry — coming on the floor and showing me his son, a towel, with his face. ‘This is what we do. This is what we f****** do. This is what the F we do.’ I feel like that’s very, very disrespectful.”
Haliburton also discussed what happened in his postgame press conference.
“Me and my pops have talked about that and I don’t agree with what transpired there from him. I think basketball is basketball and let’s keep it on the court.”
“I talked with him. I’ll talk with Giannis, eventually, about it, I don’t think my pops was in the right at all there.”
Tyrese Haliburton reacts to a confrontation his father had with Giannis Antetokounmpo.pic.twitter.com/mfobyZN66w
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 30, 2025
“I talked with him,” Haliburton added. “I’ll talk with Giannis, eventually, about it, I don’t think my pops was in the right at all there.”
