When Tyrese Haliburton’s father confronted Giannis Antetokounmpo after the Indiana Pacers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime to win the series, it drew massive amounts of attention. So much so that NBA veterans and analysts alike all gave their takes on the situation. Some of those vets included Matt Barnes and Vernon Maxwell.
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In case you missed it, after the Pacers stunned the Bucks in Game 5 of their series to end Milwaukee’s season, things got a bit heated between Haliburton’s father and Giannis. The dad approached the Greek Freak on the court and waved a towel of his son in the face of the Bucks superstar repeatedly.
At first, Giannis shrugged it off. But later, he confronted Haliburton’s dad and stood over him menacingly while he shouted down at him. It momentarily turned into quite the scary scene that could’ve gotten ugly.
Here’s another angle of Haliburton’s dad and Giannis. This is insane behavior by an old ass man.
Watch the guy in the black jersey initially sitting down in a chair with the towel on the baseline pic.twitter.com/4ldMy1Oxke
— sqr (@squaresense) April 30, 2025
When Matt Barnes brought up the confrontation to co-host Vernon Maxwell on his podcast All The Smoke, the two had their own reactions to the situation.
“My initial thought was you’re lucky you did it to a nice guy,” Barnes stated. “Because if you would’ve hit someone like me or Max or Stack or someone else with that, you might have gotten Daffy Duck’d.”
Hali’s dad is lucky it was Giannis that he confronted. However, Barnes would go on to say that he talked to some people about Haliburton’s father, and he thinks differently about him now. He learned that his dad is simply very proud of his son as well as himself for raising a child as a black father.
These were things that Barnes and Maxwell could sympathize with. But the Rockets legend couldn’t help but offer some advice for Hali’s dad.
“What I would’ve done? I don’t know, I probably would’ve hit him with a two-piece,” Maxwell admitted. “But I’m saying that ain’t the right sh*t to do.”
The sentiment gave Barnes a good laugh. But later, Maxwell said that he also understands being a father of a basketball player and getting too amped up during games.
So does Barnes! The former Clipper and Lakers forward recalled how he received a 1 year ban from high school games at Harvard Westlake this past year. He even lost his job with NBC Sports, doing analysis for the Sacramento Kings, because of it.
The Pacers announced that banned Hali’s father for the foreseeable future for the incident between him and Giannis. Furthermore, Haliburton himself seemed to support the decision.
Giannis reportedly talked to Hali’s dad after the game, and the two are “good” now. But he also came out after the game and said that the actions were completely unacceptable and disrespectful. This makes sense given that Giannis has gone on record saying that his father taught him the importance of humility, even in victory. He probably wanted Hali’s dad to do the same.
Perhaps the most unfortunate part of the situation is that it took away from the excellent comeback that the Pacers pulled off against Giannis that night. It looked as though we were going back to Milwaukee for Game 6, but then Indiana pulled off an improbable comeback. Sending Giannis’ future with the Bucks up into the air.
