“Kobe Bryant Guy All The Way Through”: Before His Puma Hali 1 Debut, Tyrese Haliburton Poured His Heart Out For Nike Kobes

Tyrese Haliburton probably had one of the greatest signature shoe debuts of all time a couple of nights ago. After Puma revealed official images of his Hali 1 just hours before Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Pacers’ PG proceeded to hit the game-winning shot—and then shout out his shoes afterward. But Hali only signed with Puma last October. Before that, like so many players, he was a Nike athlete with his line of Player Exclusive Kobes.

Now, a guard wearing Kobe’s signature line is not the slightest bit surprising, with many of today’s top guards having a history with them. Caitlin Clark has her own line of Kobe PEs, as does Jalen Brunson. Before Ja Morant got his signature deal with Nike, he used to don the Kobe line, too.

Haliburton was no different. In an old short video posted to YouTube, the point guard was in conversation with SeeHendo, a channel that covers lifestyle, sports, and gaming content. While talking to him, Hali had on his Kobe 6s in the All-Star PE.

Speaking about his love for Bryant’s signature line, he said, “Yea, I’m a Kobe guy through and through. I only really change for PG1s, maybe some Kyries here and there, but Kobe’s is everything for me.”

Haliburton was a PE athlete with Nike before his deal expired, so it’s understandable that he had plenty of Kobe 6s that were decked out to suit his personality and play style. Probably the wildest, most outlandish PE he ever wore was a hybrid of Kobe’s signature shoe and LeBron James’ Zoom Generation.

Since he is a self-proclaimed LeBron fan, the hybrid makes sense, and from the way it looked on his feet, you couldn’t really find many flaws with the shoe.

The shoes must’ve clearly had some special powers as well, because Haliburton guided his Pacers to an overtime victory against the Rockets that night, putting up a ridiculous double-double of 29 points and 19 assists in 38 minutes.

Of course, now that he is no longer a Nike athlete, Hali has worked to develop his own shoes, and they really couldn’t have had a much better debut. After the game, Haliburton joked in the press conference about the shoes being the secret to the Pacers’ performance, saying, “Yeah, it’s a great question. The secret sauce today was these (points to his shoes). Nah, I’m just playing.”

He also paid homage to Michael Jordan’s famous commercial with Spike Lee, tweeting out “It’s gotta be the shoooeeesss” hours after the game.

Clearly, Haliburton’s confidence is at an all-time high, which just goes to show that if you look good, you feel good. And Hali’s signature shoes are right up there with some of the best in the league.