Did you know that when Iowa State was recruiting Tyrese Haliburton, they got a sense of his basketball IQ by just watching him play basketball video games? The youngster wasn’t just gaming but taking ideas from the game to the hardwood. Sitting down with GQ Sports, Haliburton breaks down his gaming setup and the hard drive he has with him at all times during road games.
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In a world where most gamers are divided between Playstation and Xbox, Haliburton took a step in the right direction and went PC instead. On an episode GQ Sports titled ‘10 Things USA Basketball’s Tyrese Haliburton Can’t Live Without,’ the Indiana Pacers’ All-Star point guard revealed his love for gaming and how he keeps up with his hobby while on the road
Haliburton mentioned how he’s mostly on PC when he’s at home, getting his work done and playing games on it as well. But when on the road, he has a hard drive full of his favorite games that he can carry with him at all times and fire up wherever he wants.
“I travel, I be on Xbox or Playstation and I don’t have my data, my save on it. So, I put all my games on this right here, my hard drive. I could play everything out here, WWE, 2K, Call of Duty, Madden, everything out here.”
Despite going back to PC, Tyrese Haliburton revealed how he is not a mouse and keyboard player. So, instead of using the usual tools of a PC for gaming, the 24-year-old carries a controller with him at all times.
The Indiana Pacers star proudly owns an Xbox Elite Controller despite growing up on Playstations. But he went with an Xbox Elite Controller due to the simplicity and ease of connectivity. And even though he didn’t say it, the ergonomic design on an Xbox controller has always been favored by gamers, including gamers who are on Playstation as well.
One other thing that the two-time All-Star carries is a mic that he has with him on the road as well. Having started a YouTube channel with his younger brother, Haliburton mentions playing with him on the cloud. And since the two are in different cities while he’s on the road, the mic makes it easy for the two to communicate and then upload the gaming videos on their YouTube channel.
Earlier Haliburton’s gaming skills impressed Iowa State’s then-assistant Neill Berry during recruitment. Berry said, “…You could tell he has an understanding of a lot of different things… He just has a deeper level of understanding that 16- and 17-year-old kids normally don’t have.” He realized that the youngster wasn’t just playing the game for entertainment, but was reading the moves while playing an NBA 2K game.
