Tyrese Haliburton Looks Back at Segment With Jalen Brunson On WWE Smackdown Last Year

Tyrese Haliburton and Jalen Brunson shared the ring on an episode of WWE Smackdown last year, and Haliburton recently reflected on the moment. Haliburton was a guest on this week’s Raw Recap with Sam Roberts and Megan Morant, and you can see highlights below (Fightful):

on his segment with Jalen Brunson on Smackdown last year: “Well, okay, two-part question. So first part is yeah, I am fully understanding that we are going into The Garden (for SmackDown segment with Jalen Brunson) and I am a full heel. There’s no playing the middle, there’s none of that. I am the heel and I’m leaning into it. It’s a lot of fun for me when I go to The Garden or just play anywhere to have that reputation or whatever. It’s a lot of fun. I view basketball as that sometimes. When I play at home, I’m more of a face. When I’m on the road, I’m a heel. It’s just how life is. I was really excited about getting to play the heel in The Garden because I’ve always wanted to do something with WWE. It’s always been a dream of mine. I would love to take a bump or something but obviously, the league is not going for that… They are not letting that happen.

“So Triple H called me up and he was like, ‘Hey, we want you to come to SmackDown’ and I was like, ‘No question.’ Like, I’m gonna be the bad guy. I was like, ‘Ah! No, I’m all in.’ I was so excited for that. As a kid, I always imagined if I was a wrestler, I’d be the bad guy because I’m like the skinny guy who can talk trash with people and then, we’ll figure it out in the ring and I always imagined myself as the mouthpiece of a stable. I always felt like that was supposed to be me. So, it fit well and then I honestly didn’t even know Jalen was gonna be there until the day before or like the day of. So we got there, and me and Jalen are cool so I was like, ‘Are you coming?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah,’ and then, ‘I’m just letting you know, we’re figuring it out and this is what it’s gonna be’ and it was just a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun doing it and yeah, I’m really appreciative of WWE for letting me do that and hopefully there’s many more opportunities for me to get involved in the future.”

On his rivalry with Brunson: “That’s a great question (what WWE rivalry mirrors Pacers versus Knicks). Here’s the thing is we are two young teams who haven’t won in a very long time, right? To me, it feels it’s more like the NXT rivalry or Intercontinental Championship bout because it’s two guys who haven’t really proven that they can be a top guy yet so, that to me kind of makes me feel like it’s — NXT, I’m thinking like Bron Breakker/Carmelo Hayes. That’s kind of where my mind is. But I’m definitely thinking younger guys that wanna get to the mountain top because they haven’t won a championship since the 70s. Pacers have never won an NBA Championship.

“So, I don’t wanna say there’s a changing of the guard in our league right now but, the four teams that are left, they’re a lot of young players and so that’s exciting time for our league. So I like to think more of that route than I would tell you, like, Cody/Roman because if I thought Cody/Roman, I’m thinking Steph/LeBron. I’m thinking the guys are established and doing it. I’m thinking more of the non-established guys, yet coming into their own so, that’s kind of where my mind goes right now on the spot but, let me think on that a little bit more. I’ll get you a better answer.”

On whether he thinks his WWE shirt will outsell Brunson’s: “Okay, well the markets we play in are a little different in size. So there happens to be more people in New York than Indy so, I’m a math guy. Analytically, right? By the numbers-wise, it would say Jalen. It would probably say Jalen. But that’s okay because I know people are still gonna buy my shirt. I got a bobblehead with the shirt… By analytics, Jalen would probably sell more and that’s okay. But I know there’s gonna be people out there buying my merch too.”