Tyrese Haliburton on pressure facing friend Caitlin Clark: ‘Everybody wants to take more from her’

Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton explained how he became close with Fever star Caitlin Clark.

Haliburton, who attended a number of Fever games this season, was asked about how his and Clark’s relationship blossomed throughout her rookie year — and he revealed it started with her boyfriend, Connor McCaffery, a former team assistant for the Pacers.

“I grew pretty close with Connor McCaffery being an intern with [the Pacers] last year and I’ve grown to be pretty close with Caitlin and him,” Haliburton said at Pacers media day Monday.

“Me, her, him and my girlfriend Jade all have a group chat that we talk in pretty often about everything.

“So it’s been cool to just grow a friendship with her. I don’t want to be — everybody just wants to like get more from her, take more from her, get more answers to things and I don’t want to be that. We’re friends and I think that that’s a cool part if she wants to talk basketball, we’ll talk basketball. If not, I’m totally fine with that as well. But I think we’ve grown a pretty cool friendship alongside Connor.”

Haliburton went on to discuss Clark’s growth from playing at Iowa to being selected by the Fever with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft.

The Fever were eliminated from the WNBA playoffs after a Game 2 loss to Sun in the first round last week.

“It’s been really cool to see her growth this last year and the Fever as a whole,” he said. “To see Kelsey [Mitchell] get some playoff experience, the whole group, Aliyah [Boston] … They’re a young group, they’ll be back for success.

“Now, I’m locked in to watching more WNBA.”

Clark and McCaffery — a former member of Iowa’s men’s basketball team and the son of Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery — celebrated one year together in April, she shared in a post on Instagram at the time.

She went public with their relationship when she shared photos of the couple on a boat together in August 2023.

Earlier this month, McCaffrey was hired as an assistant coach at Butler under head coach Thad Matta.