All About Tyrese Haliburton’s Supportive Parents, John and Brenda Haliburton, and Their Impact on His Journey.Giang

NBA superstar Tyrese Haliburton’s parents, John and Brenda, always taught their son to pursue his dreams relentlessly.

John, a former basketball coach and referee, and Brenda gave birth to Tyrese on Feb. 29, 2000. Tyrese is the second youngest of four children—two older brothers from Brenda’s previous marriage and his younger brother Marcel, whom Brenda welcomed with John.

Brenda didn’t miss a single basketball game when Tyrese was growing up while it was his father who first got Tyrese interested in basketball. After a college career at Iowa State, Tyrese was selected by the Sacramento Kings in the 2020 NBA Draft with his family by his side.

“First I want to thank God, but these two right here, they’re my rocks,” Haliburton told ESPN before embracing his parents. “I love these guys to death. I’m just glad I got to experience this with them.”

Tyrese was traded from the Kings to the Indiana Pacers in 2022, where he began to truly flourish as one of the NBA’s premiere point guards. During Tyrese’s breakout season in 2024 — where he led the Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals and In-Season Tournament Finals, became an All-Star starter and a member of Team USA for the 2024 Paris Olympics — his father spoke about supporting Tyrese’s dreams growing up.

“When Tyrese made that decision, ‘I’m gonna be an NBA player’ — when he was real little I got him a shirt that said ‘NBA Player’ — he believed that,” John told NBA.com. “He never thought about anything else. In fact, we never talked about anything else [as a career choice].”

From their careers to supporting their son’s basketball dreams, here’s everything to know about Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton’s parents, John and Brenda Haliburton.

Brenda attended every single one of Tyrese’s games growing up and nearly every college game

Brenda isn’t like every other mom and Tyrese knows it. She did not miss a single one of Tyrese’s basketball games growing up.

“My mom has always come to everything,” Tyrese told The Ames Tribune. “There have been nights when we played in Milwaukee, so she would go and work and leave with me with a teammate or coach for a night, but make it to the game the next day, whether it was the afternoon or night.”

The first time Brenda had to miss one of Tyrese’s games wasn’t until he was in college and it was for a reason out of her control. Despite having attended every one of Tyrese’s games up until that point, Brenda still felt bad about it and Tyrese comforted her.

“The Texas Tech game, the plane wouldn’t take off because of the weather,” Tyrese continued. “That was the first game she ever missed. She was super bummed out. I was like, ‘Mom, it’s OK.’ She felt really bad about it.”

John is a basketball referee and former women’s basketball coach

John has been around basketball for a long time, whether teaching Tyrese the game, coaching or refereeing. While John is currently a basketball referee, he was a women’s basketball coach when Tyrese was born.

However, John utilized his basketball practices to help Tyrese work on his basketball skills as well, even when Tyrese was a small child.

“My dad coached a girl’s basketball team when I was born and I meet these girls all the time. They’re like ‘Oh, I held you when you were a baby,’ ” Tyrese told reporters during a press conference with the Indiana Pacers in 2023. “They always say when I was barely old enough to crawl, my dad would make sure one half of the court was reserved for them and one half of the court was reserved for me.”

John taught Tyrese how to play basketball

Tyrese credited John as being the one who, “put the ball in his hand.” When both John and Tyrese appeared on Inside the NBA, John was asked what their dynamic was like while he was teaching Tyrese the game.

“Tyrese has always been the type of kid that you didn’t really have to push him because he had the desire from inside,” John said. “All you had to do was direct him [and] let him do his thing.”

During their Inside the NBA interview, Tyrese also revealed that his father had him constantly watch film of five-time NBA champion Magic Johnson growing up. During the 2024 NBA season, Tyrese joined Johnson and hall-of-famer John Stockton as the only players to have back-to-back games with 20 points and 20 assists in NBA history. When Tyrese was drafted, Johnson even congratulated him, while referring to Tyrese as “Little Magic.”

“A special congratulations to Tyrese Haliburton of the Sacramento Kings aka Little Magic! Tell your dad thanks for being a big fan of mine,” Johnson wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Brenda and John were with Tyrese when he was drafted into the NBA during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 saw the NBA forced into a remote draft due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than being with a large crowd at Madison Square Garden, Tyrese dressed up in a flashy suit and was drafted virtually while in his living room surrounded by his parents, brothers and girlfriend.

In the Sacramento Kings’ mini docuseries The Come Up: The Tyrese Haliburton Story, Tyrese’s parents reflected on the moment they saw their sons’ hoop dreams come true.

“It’s still amazing. It’s been his dream his whole life. I mean, just to see him achieve that was awesome,” Brenda said.

“Did I just hear them say Tyrese Haliburton? My baby just did exactly what he said he was going to do … play in the NBA,” John added.

Brenda and John regularly attend Pacers games, including Tyrese’s breakout at the In-Season Tournament

Brenda and John have become fixtures at Tyrese’s games in Indiana. However, one of John’s most notable appearances came during Tyrese’s superstar breakout at the NBA’s In-Season Tournament in 2024.

Prior to Tyrese leading the Pacers to the In-Season Tournament Finals, John excitedly predicted the Pacers would win against the Milwaukee Bucks that night, while looking into ESPN’s camera.

“We’re here and we didn’t just come here just to be here. We came here to win and win, we will,” John said. “Pacer Nation, we’re bringing it home. Go Pacers!”

Tyrese got emotional while thanking his parents upon signing a contract extension

In 2022, the Kings traded Tyrese to the Pacers. In his first full season with the Pacers, Haliburton was named an All Star.

Prior to the start of his second season with the team, he was offered a $260 million five-year extension. While speaking at the press conference about extending his tenure in Indiana, he got emotional while thanking both his parents, especially Brenda.

“My mom has been my everything for me to get here… I’m just really appreciative of you mom because of all the stuff of us growing up and pushing me to be where I am today,” Tyrese said. “It just means a lot to me, so I love and I’m really appreciative of you so thank you Mom.”

“My pops, y’all know he’s the one who put the ball in my hand,” Tyrese continued. “My dad has always pushed me. He’s my biggest fan as you can see. I mean [he’s] wearing a jersey to the press conference… I’m really appreciative of you pops and your love.

Brenda and John had different styles in parenting Tyrese

Raising a future NBA superstar is no easy task, so Brenda and John balanced their approach. John consistently praised Tyrese while teaching him the game of basketball as Brenda attended all of Tyrese’s games while providing constructive feedback.

“My household growing up was very interesting. It was good cop, bad cop. Usually, the dad is the bad cop, but [my dad] never hates on me ever. He always shows me love. He don’t ever have a bad thing to say about me,” Tyrese told Inside the NBA. “It’s my mom who goes to all the games. She has to play bad cop … It’s an interesting dynamic and they did a great job helping me learn the game for sure.”

Tyrese’s mom may have had to play the bad cop, but Tyrese thanked her for everything she did for him and called her his hero in a Mother’s Day video for NBA.com.

“My mom was a woman who came to all the games … She was always riding me, pushing me to be better,” Tyrese said. “Sometimes that made me upset, but looking back on it it’s funny because she was just pushing me to be the best I could be … She knew how passionate I was about the game and she wanted me to be the best at what I do.”

“My female hero is 100% my mom. I look up to her because of all the sacrifices she made to make sure her four boys would be good in life and she’s my everything,” Tyrese continued.