Pat McAfee is nothing if not loyal.
So it’s only natural in a conversation about the top personalities in the NBA, McAfee’s focus would stay local with his hometown Indiana Pacers. But in a check-in on the NBA near the beginning of the first episode of The Pat McAfee Show in more than two weeks, McAfee took his love of the Pacers a step further.
It was McAfee’s first chance to weigh in on the annual “what’s wrong with the NBA” debate that comes after the All-Star game each year, and he offered his take by way of a counterexample. That would be Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, who McAfee suggested is not only an ideal of what an NBA athlete should be but perhaps “the only likable superstar in the NBA.”
“I think they need more likable superstars. Thought about the NBA a lot during the break, because Tyrese Haliburton, a friend of ours, and the Pacers have the best record in 2025,” McAfee said.
“I thought about it because Tyrese is a friend of the program, and I thought to myself, is Tyrese the only likable superstar in the NBA? You start going around, and it’s like, LeBron has been famous for 25 years at this point, so it’s not his job to carry the league; it’s not his job to be out there. But all the other superstars, they don’t really care if people like them. And it’s like, hey, I think whenever you’re a league, to get the casuals in there, there has to be some sort of connection, there has to be some sort of likability. So for the Pacers to have the best record in 2025, I think is good news for the NBA, because Tyrese Haliburton hopefully is gonna get a little bit more [attention].”
There’s an idea that everyone’s favorite Saturday Night Live cast member is the one who starred during their teenage years. We like athletes who sign our favorite hats or take a photo with us at the ballpark. What McAfee is expressing here is universal, no matter how surprising at first glance.
Here’s how McAfee explained the allure of Haliburton, an Olympic gold medalist and two-time All-Star:
“He’s not scared to talk. He wants it to be a show; he wants people to like it,” McAfee explained. “I think that’s the NBA’s biggest issue.”
To be sure, Haliburton is a confident and vocal competitor. Considering that he plays in small-market Indianapolis and was a mid-first-round draft pick, he is probably recognizable to more sports fans than his status in the NBA would indicate.
But the only likable star? Come on. Even McAfee can’t actually believe that.
Wouldn’t a dude in Miami say the same about Bam Adebayo? Phoenix loves Devin Booker. And that’s before we even get to the actual biggest superstars in the league.
Steph Curry is not likable? Giannis Antetokounmpo?
Clearly, McAfee agrees with P.K. Subban (and tons of other commentators,) who believe the care factor of modern NBA stars is a detriment to the league. The point of his comment was more about what other NBA stars lack and the qualities that make Haliburton exciting than anything.
But McAfee probably went a little too far to suggest that because he personally knows Haliburton and thinks he’s about the right things, he is, therefore, the only athlete in the entire NBA who is “likable.”
