Was definitely not a great look to see Tyrese's dad confront Giannis like that last night. Good on Tyrese holding his pops accountable in the post game press conference.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2025/04/30/tyrese-haliburton-father-giannis-antetokounmpo-apology/83362577007/#

44 comments

  1. Giannis handled it very well. Hopefully he supports his son in a more respectful way that celebrate his play and not disrespect the opponent

  3. This is next level craziness.

    What would happened to a fan that did the same thing?

  7. Stupid shitty situation all around but whatever.

    I’l be honest, Hali handled it super well, considering it was his dad involved, things were chirpy all series and stuff was getting weird postgame with the shoving and talking shit.

  9. my kneejerk reaction was “eh it couldn’t have been that big of a deal right?” and then i saw the footage and i thought yeesh keep him in a box suite. we can’t be having players’ family (or any fans for that matter) on court talking shit in any circumstance. so yeah i gotta give big props to tyrese for not trying to defend his dad doing something unreasonable.

  11. wouldn’t be mad at my but after the game for sure telling my pops man I get your in the moment but you have to chill out man lmao

  13. Well at the very least that’s a real apology, no excuses whatsoever and just him saying he was in the wrong. Pretty fucking rare these days.

  14. Doesn’t excuse the situation but this is all it takes folks. Admit you’re wrong, apologize and move forward. Good stuff

  16. Collection of some of the top posts on this subreddit in the past 12 hours:

    John Halliburton comes on court and Giannis looking confused -> John Halliburton and Giannis jaw at each other after game -> Giannis tells him to scram in his post game -> Tyrese agreeing his dad should scram -> John Halliburton apologizing

    Vicious news cycle, at least we get closure on the Darth Halliburton saga

  17. Dude did a really dumb thing. His kid and everyone else called him out. And he apologized. Seems like this should be the end of it. 

  18. Got overenthusiastic, got carried away. No villains here. No need to belittle anybody. Tyrese and Giannis and John all talking like adults afterward.

  19. Much respect to Giannis and Hali for how they handled this. Respect to the dad too for apologizing and owning his mistake.

  21. Wow, a situation resolved with maturity? What is ESPN going to talk about for the next week? 

  22. And Shaq still thought this was totally acceptable. I’m glad to hear Tyreses dad apologize

  25. Remember when LeBron screamed at him mom “SIT YO’ ASS DOWN GLORIA!”?

    Not saying he should be using those words lol but whatever happens on the court is between the players and it should stay between the players.

  27. I’m disappointed but not surprised by Shaq’s comments about this. He is so against the new generation that he acts like he wouldn’t get absolutely livid if an opposing players father did that to him. On top of that, he kept talking over Charles like a big child. I’m so tired of seeing that piece of shit on tv. If you can’t celebrate good basketball why do they got him there?

  28. Ja Morant’s friend got banned from the arena for a year for stepping like a foot onto the court yelling at the Pacers. I assume John Halliburton will also be banned, right? /s

  29. The worst person in this saga is Shaq, hands down. The NBA & all affiliates need to leave Shaq behind (not only because of this, but because Shaq sucks ass)

  30. The saddest part is that everyone should be talking about Hali cooking and hitting the series clincher in OT. 

    Instead everyone is talking about his dad and Giannis. 

    Hali’s game winner was the statement he needed to overturn the narrative that he’s overrated but daddy’s textbook narcissism took over.  

  32. He gave a good apology and no one got hurt + no lasting negative effects. For me that means I shouldn’t hold it against him too much in the future and everyone should move on.

    I know that won’t happen for a lot of people but I really believe it should in situations like this. It only makes it harder to hold the real bad guys accountable when genuine mistakes aren’t forgiven.

  33. I think we can stop talking about this now. Dude acted like a clown, his son called him out on it, and this seems like a genuine apology. I don’t think he’s a bad dude, just got too hype and acted like a fool.

  34. I think the second on court interaction between them that looks bad with the head to head contact is probably Giannis giving John a piece of his mind and John acknowledging he is wrong. Giannis seems to walk away satisfied with the situation and not angry.

  36. For me, it’s not about what he did. It’s not that bad to say something when your boy just won the series.

    But by doing that, nobody is talking about Tyrese’s win. Now they’re just talking about the way his dad acted

  39. First Take is trying real hard to make this a story. It’s nice to see Tyrese hold his dad accountable and for his dad to hold himself accountable and publicly apologize.

  43. Well, it’s a start. A written apology is the bare minimum.

    Next step should be for Adam Silver to send a message that there was failure to provide a safe environment for his league’s workers (in this case, Giannis) and Pops Haliburton will be banned from attending games for the rest of the playoffs.

    This isn’t a “Whoops, my bad” and then move on situation. You had a grown ass man who had no business being there going on the court (the players’ workplace) and getting in the face of one your players. The league is lucky Giannis is one of the most standup dudes in the league — do this to the wrong guy (e.g., Draymond, Ja, half the Pistons) they could have had a melee on their hands.

    Silver won’t do anything, though. He’s deferential to a fault.

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