Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton will have his father, John Haliburton, attending Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.
This means that John’s ban from attending Indiana Pacers games has ended.
He is expected to be seated in a suite on Tuesday night when the Pacers host the New York Knicks, in hopes of avoiding a repeat of what happened in Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Indiana holds a 2-1 lead over New York.
“I think a father-son relationship is special. I grew up in a house where my father was a big part of my life, and this is a very special moment – conference finals, and you potentially move on. So I’m glad that a father can see his son play,” Tyrese’s teammate Myles Turner said on Monday.
Why was Tyrese Haliburton’s father banned from Indiana Pacers’ games?
Tyrese Haliburton’s father, John Haliburton, was banned from attending Indiana Pacers games earlier in the playoffs following an on-court confrontation with Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
John Haliburton has not attended any of the Pacers’ eight games – home or road – since running onto the court and yelling in Antetokounmpo’s face after his son made a last-second layup in overtime to send the Bucks home in the first round for the third straight year.
Instead, he has been seen in a local Indianapolis bar celebrating his son’s feats, such as making a buzzer-beating shot to force overtime in Game 1 against the Knicks – a game Indiana won at New York. If the Pacers don’t win the series by Game 5, Game 6 would be in Indianapolis, just like Game 4.
Tyrese Haliburton was not made available to reporters on Monday, when the Pacers confirmed their decision to lift the ban on his father. But he would surely be relieved and pumped up for the game as his dad would be watching.