LeBron James Showers Tyrese Haliburton With Strong Praise Before 2025 NBA Finals

On the latest episode of his podcast, “Mind the Game” with Hall of Famer Steve Nash, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James showered Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton with strong praise ahead of the 2025 NBA Finals. 

James and Haliburton were teammates on Team USA last summer, helping the United States win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. 

“Just a great person, man,” James said about Haliburton. “Great kid. Didn’t matter if he was playing or if he got the opportunity. He was the same guy every single day. And you could see that his mainframe was soaking in all the knowledge and the details being around all of us. 

“And he was just super appreciative every single day. Never changed his mood. When we have practices, we was doing five-on-five and maybe it was a practice where some of the older guys didn’t go that day, he was ready to go. If it was a moment in the game where he was called, he was ready to go.

“But just a great kid. Every single day, he was the same person. Joking, laughing, high-spirited. Someone that you now, you look at what’s going on with the Pacers throughout the regular season and now throughout the postseason, you get it. You get why they are the team that they are and it starts with the head of the snake.

“Hali is one of them ones and the success is not happening just because it came out the blue. It’s happening because of Hali.”

The Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks to advance to the NBA Finals.

Haliburton averaged 18.8 points and 9.8 assists against the Bucks, Cavaliers and Knicks. 

James is the leading scorer in NBA history. He’s a four-time MVP, a four-time champion and a four-time Finals MVP. For him to go out of his way to praise Haliburton is significant. 

Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals between the Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder is on Thursday, June 5. It starts at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time on ABC.