“Messed Up”: Caitlin Clark’s Reaction to Tyrese Haliburton’s Surprising Admission About Her Iowa Days

Just three minutes earlier, Chelsea Gray had seen Caitlin Clark cross the half-court and make a 3-point shot from the logo. With the game on the line, Gray knew the force her team was dealing with. With less than two minutes remaining in regulation, the Las Vegas Aces veteran accepted the challenge to defend Clark. The Fever star beats the Aces veteran with a screen from Kelsey Mitchell, and even before NaLyssa Smith could close the gap, Clark had fired. 

Clark gave the Fever a 72-70 lead with a long-distance 3-pointer from the top of the key, and the first person the camera switched to was the Indiana Pacers star, Tyrese Haliburton. In the stands with both his hands in the air, Haliburton was cheering her, an unfathomable scene for him just a few years ago because of the Iowa State-Iowa rivalry.

“‘It took until you stopped wearing an Iowa jersey for me to be like, ‘Go, Caitlin, and go, Fever,’” Haliburton recalled admitting to Clark while appearing on Iowa alum and NFL tight end George Kittle’s “The Kittle Things.” “‘She’s like, ‘That’s messed up.’ And I was just, ‘That’s just the truth.'”

The sudden change of heart is not beyond the scope of understanding for anyone who has known about the Cyclones-Hawkeyes rivalry. Haliburton played for the Cyclones from 2018-20 before being drafted by the Sacramento Kings, but he continued to refuse Clark’s her due respect. 

Clark had joined the Hawkeyes in 2020 and took the team to two NCAA championship games. She had slowly shattered records. She became the highest scorer in college basketball history. But Haliburton still didn’t acknowledge what he long knew. 

“I knew Caitlin was the best player in the country and I would never, ever say that she’s not,” Haliburton added. “I just refused to acknowledge it.”

Stars from two rival programs were fated to be the best of friends. In 2022, Haliburton was traded from Sacramento to Indiana. Two years later, the Indiana Fever picked Clark as their No. 1 pick, who was also coming off a loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks in the NCAA Finals. While Haliburton’s wife, Jade Jones from Iowa State, cheered for Clark, Haliburton remained loyal to his school.  

“I told (Caitlin), ‘When you went to the national championship, I was not cheering for you.’ That was not ever in the cards. That would never happen,” Haliburton said on the podcast. 

The full-fledged friendship between Haliburton and Clark has been a highlight of the growing confluence of WNBA and the NBA in the last few years. But before Clark and Haliburton went pro, they were competing at the highest level in the state.

“When you’re coming to Iowa, what you’re going to is a state with no professional sports teams, so the college sports are everything,” the Pacers star added. 

While Haliburton didn’t achieve much during his two seasons with the Iowa State Cyclones, Clark came out as one of the most decorated stars in NCAA history. 

The depth of Clark’s utter dominance was unprecedented. She was the NCAA scoring leader and assists leader three out of four years. Clark received almost every major award as a college athlete and came out as the NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader. 

Tyrese Haliburton chooses Caitlin Clark’s teammate over the Fever star

For someone not to pick Caitlin Clark as his teammate from the WNBA players might sound like a silly choice. She can score, and she is one of the best playmakers in the league at such a young age. Clark would be a dream pick, especially for a team looking to improve their offense.

But not Haliburton. The Pacers star instead picked Kelsey Mitchell as his dream pairing from the WNBA. Reason? Because Clark and Haliburton play almost identical games.

“Obviously, everybody knows I’m a big Fever fan, so it’s got to be either Kelsey Mitchell, Caitlin Clark or Aliyah Boston,” Haliburton said in an interview with NBA 2K in Singapore. “Caitlin and I play too much alike. She probably wants the ball too much for me. So probably, I’d say Kelsey Mitchell cause I need somebody to score the rock.”

Both Haliburton and Clark are playmakers on their respective teams. Their pairing would make no sense. Mitchell, on the other hand, scores at will and is a point guard’s dream teammate.

Sadly, the Fever crashed out of the first round of the playoffs, forcing them to make tough decisions during the offseason. Kelsey Mitchell is a free agent, and the Fever want Clark to sign the extension pretty soon.

The post “Messed Up”: Caitlin Clark’s Reaction to Tyrese Haliburton’s Surprising Admission About Her Iowa Days appeared first on EssentiallySports.