Giannis Antetokounmpo gets into heated argument with Tyrese Haliburton’s father after early playoff exit

Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks were eliminated in the first round by Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers.

Giannis Antetokounmpo gets into heated argument with Tyrese Haliburton’s father after early playoff exit

Giannis Antetokounmpo clashes with Tyrese Haliburton's father and Indiana Pacers

The Milwaukee Bucks were facing the daunting task of keeping their playoff hopes alive. Giannis Antetokounmpo and his teammates were down 1-3 and were traveling to Indianapolis to take on the hot-handed Tyrese Haliburton and his Indiana Pacers.

The Bucks knew they had to start the game hot despite not having Damian Lillard in the lineup. They did as they blitzed out to a 30-13 first-quarter lead. But the second quarter onwards, the Pacers started to claw back at that deficit.

By the time it was the fourth quarter, both teams were neck and neck. Even though Antetokounmpo and his teammates tried to extend the lead, Haliburton, who has been hot late in the game, helped the Pacers force overtime.

In overtime, against the Bucks raced out to a seven-point lead. But buoyed by their home crowd, Tyrese Haliburton and his teammates stepped on the gas pedal and made crucial shots to win the game 119-118. This win also means that the Pacers move on to the next round.

After the game, Giannis Antetokounmpo was seen walking towards Tyrese Haliburton’s father, John. The Greek Freak then faced him straight and had a tense war of words. The Bucks star was close enough to head butt John Haliburton and had to be separated.

He then got into another war of words with Indiana Pacers players after the game. The tension between the two sides has been evident over the past couple of years. But this outburst from the former league MVP shows how far this rivalry has gone.

John Haliburton instigated Giannis Antetokounmpo

Once this near head butt video went viral, other clips started to surface as to why Giannis Antetokounmpo confronted John Haliburton. A couple of clips show that the father of the Indiana Pacers star had been taunting the Milwaukee Bucks star towards the end of the game.

After the whistle, he whipped out a towel with his son’s face on it, waved it in front of the former Defensive Player of the Year, and then stopped to say a few words. Those words caught the attention of the 30-year-old, and he was seen staying fixated on what John Haliburton was telling him.

Soon, Bucks and Pacers players as well as staff gathered around to try and stop Antetokounmpo from going after the former women’s basketball coach and referee. But a while later, he did go up to Haliburton, and that is when he said what he had to say.

But it was evident that it was a response after all the taunts John Haliburton threw at the Greek Freak. The Greek international is known to lose his temper from time to time. However, both sides should have kept things in check.

Tyrese Haliburton calls out his dad for instigating the altercation

Tyrese Haliburton had hit the game-winning layup and was busy celebrating with fans. He had no idea something like this was brewing on the court. Once he went into the tunnel, Pacers’ staff informed him, and he understood how the situation unfolded.

Basketball is basketball, and let’s keep it on the court. I think that he just got excited, saw something, the game-winner, and just came on the court. We had a conversation. … I’ll talk with Giannis eventually about it, I don’t think my pops was in the right at all there. Unfortunate what happened there.

Tyrese Haliburton said

The Indiana Pacers star knew there was no need for his father to taunt a player. It should have stayed with basketball, and he knows that his father was in the wrong here.

He would not have said anything if it were between one of his teammates and the Bucks star. They have clashed on several occasions and would have made the situation look normal for this brewing rivalry. But his father took it to a personal level, which could have been avoided.

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