The petty reason why Tyrese Haliburton refused to cheer on Caitlin Clark before the WNBA game

T yrese Haliburton has revealed that he refused to support Caitlin Clark during her rise with the Iowa Hawkeyes , admitting that their college rivalry mattered more to him than cheering for one of basketball’s biggest stars. The Indiana Pacers guard said he recognized the 24-year-old WNBA player’s talent but would not publicly back her while she represented the Hawkeyes , the fierce rival of his alma mater, the Iowa State Cyclones .

“I knew she was good. Caitlin was the best player in the country,” Haliburton said to The Kittle Things. “I would never ever say that she’s not; I just refuse to acknowledge it. When you’re coming to Iowa, what you’re not understanding is you’re going to a state that has no professional sports teams, so the college sports are everything. “Because, Caitlin, I told her, when you guys went to the national championship, I was not cheering for you. That was not ever in the cards. That would never happen. Whereas Jade is all about Caitlin, all about Iowa. “So I said, Caitlin, it took until you stopped wearing an Iowa jersey for me to be like, ‘Go Caitlin, go Fever.’ Before that, never. And so she was like, ‘That’s messed up.’ “And I was like, ‘That’s just the truth.’ That’s how I was put into the Iowa-Iowa State rivalry.” Haliburton played for Iowa State from 2018 to 2020, building his reputation as a gifted playmaker before the Sacramento Kings selected him 12th overall in the 2020 NBA Draft . He joined the Pacers in 2022 and has since become one of the franchise’s central figures. Clark , meanwhile, became the face of women’s basketball, taking the Hawkeyes to consecutive NCAA championship games in 2023 and 2024. Their paths ultimately crossed over in Indiana , where Haliburton led the Pacers to the NBA Finals and Clark became the Fever ’s marquee player and a consistent MVP candidate.

Clark and the Fever take over the WNBA

On the court, Clark has transformed the Fever ’s commercial profile and helped expand the WNBA ’s audience, with television ratings, merchandise sales and social media engagement highlighting her influence since entering the league in 2024. The scale of that growth became clear during Clark ’s rookie season, when the WNBA ’s official social media accounts recorded nearly 1.96 billion video views, compared with 373 million in late 2023. The increase coincided with Clark ’s arrival and the attention surrounding her rookie class as her popularity has also translated into substantial television audiences. Her regular-season games in 2024 averaged 1.2 million viewers, 199% more than games without her. The gap in online attention remained striking. Fever games featuring Clark generated an estimated 20 million to 45 million viral views across TikTok, X and Instagram, while games without her drew about 3 million to 5 million. Merchandise figures offer another measure of Clark ’s commercial pull. In May, her jersey ranked second among basketball items on Fanatics, behind Stephen Curry , while the three leading WNBA jerseys on the retailer were Fever custom jerseys, Clark and Cunningham . That momentum marks a sharp change for Indiana . From 2017 through 2023, the Fever ’s attendance fell below the league average in each season, and the team ranked last in 2022 before her arrival changed the demand around the franchise. Indiana averaged 17,035 fans across 20 home games in 2024, then 16,560 in 2025 and 16,379 across 20 games in 2026. The Fever now rank third in average attendance, maintaining one of the league’s strongest crowds even as the totals have eased.