TYRESE HALIBURTON HAD simply hit the newest, best shot of his life in opposition to the New York Knicks in Recreation 1 of the Japanese Convention finals at Madison Sq. Backyard. Congratulatory texts and calls had been pouring in, because the Indiana Pacers celebrated their inconceivable comeback win.
However Haliburton had an issue. He’d left his cellphone charger again in Indiana, so he was about to overlook all of them.
At this level within the postseason, only a few individuals get by means of to Haliburton on his cell, a lot much less get a response. However there’s one group chat that is all the time lively, and Haliburton wasn’t about to overlook all of the chatter on this evening.
There are 4 individuals within the group: Haliburton, his longtime girlfriend Jade Jones, Indiana Fever famous person guard Caitlin Clark and her boyfriend, Connor McCaffery.
“We’re speaking 24/7,” Haliburton informed ESPN.
The perfect participant on the Pacers, who’re two wins from a championship after a 116-107 victory over the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder in Recreation 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday evening at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and the perfect participant on the Fever, who additionally occurs to be the brightest younger star within the WNBA, are shut pals.
They do not simply attend one another’s video games and ship congratulatory messages on social media. No, the reigning king and queen of Indiana basketball go on double dates with their important others and speak consistently about basketball and the pressures of superstardom.
“The 4 of us hang around on a regular basis,” Haliburton stated. “She goes by means of quite a bit, as . There’s lots of weight and eyes on her. Clearly there may be on me as effectively, however hers are amplified occasions one million.”
Again contained in the Backyard, everybody wished to speak to Haliburton after he’d hit a soul-crushing shot on the prime of the important thing that bounced excessive off the rim earlier than dropping by means of the online to tie the rating on the finish of regulation, then paid homage to Pacers legend Reggie Miller by re-creating his choke signal as he gutted the Knicks’ hopes.
On the similar time, Clark was on the highway in Atlanta. Inside her lodge room, she was so hyped by her buddy’s shot, and the Pacers’ win in time beyond regulation, that she taped her personal wild response to the sport winner.
“I’ve a video on my cellphone I am by no means going to indicate anyone,” Clark informed reporters in Atlanta the subsequent day. “I videotaped myself, like, the ultimate play and I’ve my response in actual time. It is a fairly iconic video. Possibly at some point everyone will see it, however no, not proper now.”
Haliburton has seen the video. After all she had despatched it to the group textual content.
“She was going loopy!” Haliburton stated.
“I cuss approach an excessive amount of in [the video],” Clark informed ESPN, by the use of explaining why she would not share that video publicly. She additionally stated she has recorded herself watching nearly all of Haliburton’s game-winning photographs this season and is saving them for posterity — or perhaps a venture sometime. The one one she did not get was the shot he hit to beat the Thunder in Recreation 1 of those Finals with 0.3 seconds remaining.
“I used to be on FaceTime with [teammates] Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull the entire sport,” Clark stated. “However on the finish, I used to be like, ‘I received to get off FaceTime, I’ve to observe this. I can not give attention to each.'”
She thought of taping herself reacting to no matter occurred on the ultimate possession.
“However then I used to be like, ‘Nah, no approach. 4 occasions in a row?'” Clark stated. “So I did not take my cellphone out for OKC, however I used to be going loopy standing on the sofa.”
Just a few hours later, Haliburton dropped Clark’s congratulatory publish on X into their group chat.
“I used to be like, ‘Good shot, Ty,'” Clark stated. “What number of occasions are you able to inform him? Good job.”
And so it’s that probably the most highly effective friendship in basketball lives in Indianapolis, the place two 20-something stars are pushing themselves, and one another, to the highest of the basketball universe.
“Ty and I might each inform you that is the place we each hope to remain the remainder of our careers,” Clark stated. “Individuals are like, ‘It is a small market.’ However no, that is what makes it enjoyable. These individuals, that is what means the world to them. We have not hosted a Finals sport in 25 years and I’ve by no means seen one of these pleasure. Individuals are lining up three hours earlier than the sport. I actually simply received the chills fascinated about it.
“They usually’re the identical for the Fever. I feel it is similar to [Pacers coach] Rick [Carlisle] stated, ‘In 49 different states it is basketball, however right here it is simply actually totally different.’ I am actually lucky to have the ability to play right here and he is the identical.”
THE NEXT AFTER Haliburton hit the shot within the Backyard, Clark hit the group textual content once more, this time to speak to Haliburton about one thing completely totally different.
The Fever had pulled out a win in Atlanta behind 26 factors from Natasha Howard, however for the primary time since her sophomore 12 months of faculty, Clark had did not hit a 3-pointer. The Dream had thrown all the pieces that they had at her, mainly forcing others to beat them.
They’d picked her up full courtroom, face-guarded her and blitzed her in an effort to get the ball out of her palms early, and tire her out. And it had labored.
“Clearly we each need the ball in our palms in transition,” Clark stated. “That is actually the place we thrive, taking part in and pick-and-roll. And it will get laborious when groups choose you up full courtroom and deny 94 ft and do not allow you to get the ball.
“So I used to be simply leaning on him, ‘How can I get open? How do you handle perhaps not having to roll each possession in transition? Or having slightly give-and-take with your self?’
“That is one thing I am attempting to navigate. Clearly that is solely 12 months 2 for me, and he is in no matter, six or 5, no matter it’s for him. So he is been by means of it. That is simply how we bounce concepts off of one another.”
Haliburton had recommendation, however stated it was a relentless wrestle for him as effectively. The Thunder have aggressively tried to restrict his drives by choosing him up early and forcing him off his downhill line.
In Recreation 2 of the Finals he was capable of drive simply 9 occasions, and the Pacers scored simply two factors on these performs. That 0.22 factors per likelihood is his worst effectivity on drives in any playoff sport of his profession, based on GeniusIQ.
The best way to fight that’s to be extra aggressive when the blitz or hedge comes. Look to attain extra. Do not go early within the possession and hope you get it again. As a result of in opposition to this Thunder group, you will not.
In Recreation 3 on Wednesday, Clark was at middle courtroom to verify her buddy remembered their dialog.
“I used to be yelling at him the entire sport like, ‘Shoot it! Shoot it! Shoot it! You are open!’ And I like that unselfishness. That is why they’re so good, as a result of the complete group is unselfish in that approach. However he may really rating each time.”
Clark’s presence was famous by everybody within the constructing. Not only for her star energy, however for the great luck she has seemingly introduced the Pacers this postseason. Indiana is 8-0 in house video games that Clark has attended these playoffs.
“Belief me,” Haliburton stated of the Clark impact. “I do know it. And if I did not realize it, everybody would make it possible for I did.”
THEIR FRIENDSHIP BEGAN reasonably merely just a few years in the past.
McCaffery, Clark’s boyfriend, was a participant improvement intern on the Pacers’ employees, and he had performed in opposition to Haliburton in school — Haliburton at Iowa State, McCaffery at Iowa — however their friendship grew as soon as McCaffery joined the Pacers.
“Me and Connor would speak on a regular basis about [Clark’s] journey,” Haliburton stated. “However I refused to cheer for Caitlin till she received out of faculty as a result of I am not cheering for Iowa.”
Because the season went on and it was clear the Fever would have a superb likelihood at touchdown Clark with the No. 1 choose, Haliburton lastly relented.
Jones is from Iowa and had changed into an enormous Clark fan as Clark rewrote the document books in school. Finally Haliburton determined to shift allegiances. All of them went out to dinner and have been good pals ever since.
Haliburton had attended Fever video games since he was traded to Indiana in February 2022. The group was horrible that season, going simply 5-31, and the vibe was fully totally different than the raucous crowds that now pack the world.
“They would not even convey out half the bleachers,” Haliburton stated. “I may simply go up there after my exercise and sit courtside. Kelsey [Mitchell] was type of retaining the group collectively on the time. Then they received Aaliyah [Boston]. Now we’re excited, after which we received the No. 1 choose, Caitlin, and now the vitality is loopy.
“However I have been coming to the video games since I received there. I like basketball, particularly the ladies’s sport.”
Nevertheless, as soon as Clark received to Indiana, Haliburton could not simply present up at a Fever sport anymore. He really needed to pay for season tickets, as a result of these courtside seats had been in excessive demand. The Fever’s common house attendance jumped from simply over 4,000 per sport in 2023 to greater than 17,000 per sport in 2024.
Haliburton stated he has all the time paid consideration to ladies’s basketball. His father, John, had coached a center college women basketball group, and he developed a respect for the sport.
“He loves the sport,” Clark stated. “Even earlier than I received right here, he cherished the Fever. He has a women’ AAU basketball program. He is an actual advocate of the sport.”
Earlier than Clark got here to city, although, Haliburton would textual content Kelly Krauskopf, who has served as each Pacers and Fever president, about ladies’s school gamers he thought could be good for the group.
“Ty knew the entire gamers,” Krauskopf informed ESPN. “He would ask me earlier than the WNBA draft, ‘Kelly, what do you consider this participant? What do you consider that participant? Do you suppose she’s going to be obtainable?’ He was watching school ladies’s basketball.”
It reminded Krauskopf of an Indiana legend.
Larry Fowl was the Pacers’ president of basketball operations when the Fever went to the 2009 WNBA Finals, and he watched almost each sport.
“Larry would all the time say to me, ‘I am all the time right here if you happen to want something,'” Krauskopf stated. She took him up on that provide the evening earlier than Recreation 3 of the convention finals in opposition to the Detroit Shock.
“You already know who the coach of that group was, proper?” Krauskopf requested. “Invoice Laimbeer. So clearly Fowl wished to beat the hell out of this man.”
So Fowl known as Pacers CEO Rick Fuson and informed him he wished to purchase up all of the empty seats within the higher bowl after which give them away the subsequent morning. Then Krauskopf requested Fowl if he would speak to the group earlier than the sport.
“He gave fairly the inspirational speech that morning,” she stated. “It isn’t appropriate to repeat, but it surely was private. They usually felt it.”
THIS HAS BEEN the extent of connection between the 2 franchises because the Fever launched in 2000. The franchises share sources and employees. Proprietor Herb Simon is the longest tenured NBA and WNBA proprietor. He is additionally the final of the twin NBA-WNBA homeowners who launched the primary 16 franchises from 1997 to 2000.
However the bond between Haliburton and Clark is exclusive. They be taught from one another. They push one another. And since they play the identical place, on groups that wish to play in related methods, they typically discover themselves working by means of lots of the identical points.
“We’re similar to the Pacers and the way we wish to play,” Fever coach Stephanie White informed ESPN. “We wish to play quick. We have nice depth, and so we are able to make the most of our bench. We wish to strain 94 ft. We’d not draw back from groups within the first, second and third quarter, however hopefully our depth permits us to do this within the fourth quarter.
“[With] Tyrese, they’ll attempt to take him away. His means to get others concerned early is a superb lesson for Caitlin. She’s been capable of do what she needs to do for probably the most half as a result of she’s a generational expertise. However the nice groups are going to take that power away.”
Haliburton’s focus these days has been on staying aggressive, it doesn’t matter what the protection does schematically to get him off the ball. He stated he is attempting to be taught from Clark, how she assaults irrespective of how a lot defenses throw at her.
Clark, in flip, watches Haliburton to see methods to take higher care of the ball. Haliburton led the NBA by far this season in assist-to-turnover ratio, at 5.6, whereas Clark led the WNBA in turnovers final season, regardless of breaking the franchise document for assists in a season.
“He’ll textual content me after a sport when I’ve 10 turnovers and be like, ‘Good triple-double,'” Clark stated.
That is how they push one another. But additionally how they help one another.
“I mess together with her about it,” Haliburton stated. “However she’s going to do what she does. She’s going to continue to grow. She makes the fitting play extra occasions than not.
“Basketball is a genderless language. We each simply love the sport.”
Michelle Steele contributed to this report.
