Myles Turner Appears to Take Shot at Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton, Then Defends Himself

"I just feel like, one, Tyrese also, he knows he's protected too. So he can go out there and talking s---, saying whatever the hell he wants to do and then he knows he has backup at the end of the day," Turner said. "He's not going to be talking the same s--- if he were in the middle of street or whatever the f---."

Clearly, Turner was speaking about how he himself functioned as a support system to Haliburton on the hardwood, and enabled the 6-foot-5 Iowa State product to level up. Haliburton has made two All-NBA and two All-Star teams since getting traded to the Pacers, and advanced to two Eastern Conference Finals and last year's NBA Finals, all alongside Turner.

Haliburton has already been ruled out for the entire season as he recovers from an Achilles tendon tear. His health — and, supposedly, a lowballing free agent offer — may have propelled Turner's move.

Invariably, that one blurb was taken out of context and quickly went viral, with Turner being painted as accusing Haliburton of being something of a "fake tough guy."

Turner's Response... to Turner

Things escalated to the point where Turner felt compelled to respond on his own X account, tagging Haliburton.

Turner has a proclivity for capitalizing the first letter in every word he writes.

"Man I Know It’s Fun To Hate Me [right now] Because Of The Rivalry And Allat [all that] But Dont [don't] Let This Clip Farming Culture Get To Yall Head Me And @Hali Went To War Together For 3 Years And He Did Nun [nothing] But Elevate My Career Dead This False Narrative Immediately It’s All Love On My Side," Turner wrote.

Turner has been a formidable presence defensively for Milwaukee, but the 6-foot-11 Texas product's offense has been a bit erratic to start the year. In his five games for the 4-1 Bucks, Turner is averaging 10.0 points on .380/.286/.667 shooting splits, 6.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.2 blocks per bout.