Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton’s trainer reveals truth behind ‘shut the f**k up message

The Indiana Pacers are currently up 2-0 in their second round playoff series vs the Cleveland Cavaliers thanks to the late game heroics of Tyrese Haliburton, who sank a game-winning three to cap off Game 2. Haliburton was recently voted the most overrated player in the NBA in a survey of his peers, and apparently has taken that criticism to heart so far in these playoffs.

Haliburton frequently works with NBA trainer Drew Hanlen, who recently revealed his unconventional approach of helping his players deal with adversity by telling them to “Shut the F— up. That’s not the issue. Let’s go back into different layers,” per The Athletic.

Now, Hanlen is getting real about what goes into that unconventional approach.

“My process is more ‘facts over feelings.’ So that’s the route we took with Ty, kind of reminding him that I know the player he was and reminding him that all the different things he was going through were things he can change,” said Hanlen, per Mark Medina of RG. “It started with changing his mindset. We had to do a lot of work on that. But ultimately it was something that we knew was necessary not only to get back to playing the way he was capable of playing, but also just so he could regain his confidence and his positivity that he normally had in everyday life.”

The approach certainly seems to have worked for Haliburton in these playoffs so far.

A huge opportunity for the Pacers