Tyrese Haliburton is about to tip off the biggest series of his basketball career Thursday night in Oklahoma City. His Indiana Pacers are set to face the Thunder in the 2025 NBA Finals.
Haliburton, 25, is a former Iowa State standout. He was selected 12th overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2020 NBA Draft and played there until February 2022, when he was traded to the Pacers.
At the time of the trade, Indiana’s head coach called Haliburton “an elite young point guard that affects the game positively in many, many ways,” in an interview with NBA.com.
Since then, Haliburton has lived up to the hype and then some, especially during the Pacers' current postseason run. Just hours before Game 1 of the finals, Haliburton made a major personal announcement. Puma Basketball unveiled his first signature shoe. It shared pictures of the footwear on X and captioned the post:
"Introducing the Hali 1."
The shoe, designed by Salehe Bembury, was revealed in a Puma statement Thursday morning. Bembury shared the origin of the project:
“When I signed with Puma, the first order of business was to sign a signature athlete. They showed me a list of available and unavailable NBA athletes and told me to choose one to recruit.
I chose Tyrese... He is him.”
Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers.
Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers.
© Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
Haliburton has been teasing the new shoe across his social media platforms with sneak peeks for weeks. The “Hibiscus” colorway of the Puma Hali 1 will hit select retailers in September.
On the court, Haliburton has been a steady force for Indiana. During the Pacers’ playoff run, he’s averaging 18.8 points and 9.8 assists per game — closely mirroring his regular season averages of 18.6 points and 9.2 assists per game.
In the decisive game against the Knicks on May 31, Haliburton played 37 minutes, scored 21 points and dished out 13 assists while shooting 9-for-17 from the field. Over the six-game series, he averaged 21.0 points and 10.5 assists per game.
However, Haliburton didn’t win the Eastern Conference finals MVP; Pascal Siakam took home the honor. Nonetheless, Haliburton’s impact on Indiana’s title run is undeniable.