Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick’s apology for Tyrees Halliburton may have been a little too fast.
The Indiana Pacers are currently leading the Oklahoma City Thunder 2-1 in the 2025 NBA Finals, with Tyrees Halliburton undoubtedly playing a key role in that.
Halliburton will clearly be a blow to some of his critics as he has only two wins from leading the Pacers to the 2025 NBA Championship.
But Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Reddick is one of the few who have always believed in Halliburton’s talent.
When Halliburton faces stardom, King Sacramento must regret his decision to give up.
After all, Halliburton was originally drafted by the King using his 12th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. However, in the middle of his sophomore season, the Kings parted ways with Halliburton.
At the time, not many people were particularly bad about trading. The king decided to focus on Dearon Fox and Domanta Sabonis.
But Redick called out the Kings and said, “This is some form of medical malpractice in the King’s part… Tyrese Halliburton was the best player on that team…
“He decided to turn things around and become part of a rebuild in Sacramento. They traded the best players,” he told ESPN’s NBA episode on February 9, 2022.
No one could have predicted Halliburton’s success, but Redick felt like he was on the right path just to get his comments back.
Despite his opposition to Hari Sabonis’ trade, watching the Kings’ breakout 2022-23 season, Reddick appears to regret his ferocious rant.
Reddick apologized on March 14, 2023 for his “cheating” comments about the episode of his podcast, “The Old Man and the 3.”
“I just want to be responsible for what I said at last year’s trade deadline. In the trade deadline context, I didn’t like trade.
“I apologize for that because I shouldn’t have used the word ‘cheating’,” Reddick said.
“I apologize to the Sacramento Kings fan base. I apologize to Monte McNair. This deal has been turned to both sides,” the current Lakers head coach concluded.
However, Reddick may regain his apology as he sees how the king has fallen off the cliff since the breakout campaign and the Pacers improved along with Halliburton.
After all, the Kings missed the playoffs for the second year in a row, but the Pacers were in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024.