Of all the crazy early-season predictions out there, one came from the 44th President of the United States. Barack Obama, casually seated across from Tyrese Haliburton on The Old Man & The Three, dropped one of those lines you only realize mattered months later. “I like how the Pacers are playing,” he said. It was October 2024. The season hadn’t even started. Indiana hadn’t won anything yet. And Haliburton, ever the smart aleck, fired back.
At the time, it was lighthearted, almost throwaway. A Hall-of-Fame-level compliment from a lifelong hoops fan who knows his way around a scouting report. Tyrese laughed it off, asking, “Are you saying that just because I’m in front of you?” And Obama, deadpan as ever, smirked: “Yes. But also because you guys play with pace and you move the ball around.”
Sure, it got a chuckle, especially after Haliburton accused him of just being polite. However, Obama then doubled down, comparing Indiana’s ball movement and pace to those of the Spurs and Warriors. “The ball’s poppin’… nobody’s just backing up and dribbling the whole time,” he said with approval. And then he slipped in the critique: “Now, you gotta pick up that defense a little bit,” the former POTUS added with a smile. Haliburton’s response? A sheepish laugh and one line that hit different in hindsight: “We’re figuring it out.”
Obama praised the Pacers style of play at the beginning of the season. Now they’re in the NBA Finals pic.twitter.com/53i69JKxRH
— TheYoungManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) June 1, 2025
Now fast-forward eight months. The Pacers are in the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years. Not just fun to watch, not just League Pass darlings — finalists. The quote that once felt like a question mark now reads like prophecy fulfilled. Because they didn’t just figure it out. They committed. And now the world’s seeing the payoff.
Coming into this season, the Pacers were built to dazzle on League Pass but not exactly feared on defense. Their pace and ball movement had everyone’s eyes, but when it came to stopping opponents? That was a whole different story. Last year’s results only confirmed the doubts: they couldn’t guard anybody. The narrative was pretty clear: exciting offense, but no bite.
And that’s what made Tyrese Haliburton’s words after the ECF win feel like a full-circle moment. “Last year, all that was being said was we couldn’t win because we didn’t guard anybody. And all we tried to do was outscore people,” Haliburton said, fresh off the win. That narrative? Dead. This year’s Pacers aren’t just fun. They’re annoying on defense, and they know it. “We’ve taken such a big step on the defensive end,” Haliburton added. “Andrew, Aaron, and Myles kind of lead that… and me and Pete are trying to follow their lead.”
This is not lip service. The Knicks turned the ball over 18 times in Game 6, Indiana converted those into 34 points, and bagged the 125-108 win. Their defense didn’t just show up this time, it rather drove the game. And now that’s not a podcast quote. That’s Rick Carlisle’s new reality. How?
How Tyrese Haliburton & Co. turned Presidential advice into NBA Finals DNA
“Our defense is something we’ve been working on steadfastly for over a year and a half,” Carlisle said. “We weren’t a team with great defenders. But we’ve gotten better defenders. We’ve gotten bigger. We got Pascal.” And most importantly? The entire roster bought in. That’s where Obama’s preseason nod almost feels prophetic, because Indiana didn’t scrap their offensive identity. They didn’t slow down, nor did they go full grit-and-grind. They layered defense onto the style that made them special.
Now, they’re heading into a Finals matchup against the MVP, the best offense in the league, and a Thunder team that lives in fast-forward. Carlisle isn’t acting nonchalant: “Oklahoma will present some very tough challenges defensively for us… We just can’t celebrate too much.”
So yes, the ball’s still poppin’. But now? So are the passing lanes. And maybe, just maybe — the former President saw it coming before the rest of us did. The thing about growth? It’s rarely loud. It happens behind closed doors, in film rooms, in weight rooms, in the humbling losses that don’t go viral. And when Haliburton laughed nervously in front of Obama back in October, there was an honesty in that chuckle — a quiet admission that they weren’t there yet, but they wanted to be.
The very thing Obama flagged — defense — became the identity driver. The same group that used to be allergic to stops now uses them to control pace, dictate tempo, and, in Rick Carlisle’s words, “drive the train.” Haliburton’s original reply lingers because it wasn’t defensive, no pun intended. It was curious, open, and ambitious. “We’re figuring it out.” They did. And the world’s about to find out just how far that evolution can go.
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