Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton recently said that someone hurled a racial slur at his brother during an NBA playoff game against the Milwaukee Bucks last weekend.
During a post-game press conference on Tuesday, Haliburton said his younger brother was “called the N-word” in the stands during the game.
“It was important for us as family to just address that, and that was important for us to talk about, because that just didn’t sit right with anybody in our family,” he said. “Just been important to have my family here right now, and my little brother has handled that the right way, and so yeah, we’ve just done a good job of handling this environment.”
Haliburton, who grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin — roughly 90 miles north of Milwaukee — then discussed what it’s been like for him competing in the playoffs in his home state.
“The conversations, it’s friendly during the regular season because I’m the hometown kid, but it’s a little different when you’re visiting in this environment.”
The Pacers played against the Bucks in Milwaukee for the first two games of the series. The Bucks defeated the Pacers 109-94 in Game 1 on Sunday, followed by a victory for the Pacers, beating the Milwaukee team 125-108 in Game 2 on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Bucks released the following statement to HuffPost on Haliburton’s press conference: “An arena guest services representative reported that during Sunday’s game a few guests were not sitting in their correct seats. The guest services representative asked the group to move one section over to their correct seats.”
“Then, one of the individuals in the group claimed to the representative that a person sitting in front of him had used a derogatory term toward him. The accused person denied the accusation,” the spokesperson continued. “The group moved to their correct seats and no further incident was reported.”
“We take our fan environment extremely seriously and are committed to providing a safe and secure experience.”
Haliburton, whose mom is white and dad is Black, has been outspoken about racial justice issues before.
In 2020, he posted photos of himself on social media wearing a suit that featured the phrase “Black Lives Matter” on the inside of his jacket for the virtual 2020 NBA draft.
Asked about the message during the draft event, Haliburton said at the time that it was important to him to “emphasize” that Black lives matter with “everything that’s going on in our world.”
The Bucks and the Pacers are set to face off again for Game 3 in Indiana on Friday.