Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton experienced his fanboy moment when he met WWE Hall of Famer Booker T and his wife Sharmell backstage ahead of last night’s game against the Houston Rockets.
Booker T is certainly one of the legendary wrestlers who had a successful run in WWE, WCW and TNA. Booker T had been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame twice – first as a singles star in 2013 and later in 2019 alongside his brother Stevie Ray as part of Harlem Heat. He has built a massive fan following due to his craft across the promotions and NBA’s Tyrese Haliburton is seemingly a huge fan of the former World Champion.
Tyrese Haliburton meets Booker T
Indiana Pacers’ official Twitter account posted a video clip of Tyrese Haliburton meeting Booker T and his wife Queen Sharmell.
In the video, Haliburton was delighted to meet the WWE veteran and Sharmell and it was certainly a heartwarming moment. Haliburton said:
“Booker T, no way…And the Queen!”
He also said that he’s “a big WWE fan.”
“Booker T, no way…And the Queen!”
Tyrese Haliburton met @WWE Hall of Famers Booker T and Queen Sharmell before last night’s game. safe to say he was a little excited 🥹😂 pic.twitter.com/Ik4q2yZOTG
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) December 27, 2023
Tyrese Haliburton’s performance against Houston Rockets
Tyrese Haliburton bagged 33 points and racked 10 assists to lead eight Indiana scorers in double figures. The visitors picked up 123-117 win in a back-and-forth clash with the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.
Fred VanVleet gave the Rockets a 117-115 lead with a floater with 1:50 to play while Myles Turner sank two free throws and Haliburton hit his seventh 3-pointer of the night to push the Pacers back in front at 120-117 with 63 seconds left.
Pacers had lost six of its past seven games and luckily they survived a missed dunk from Alperen Sengun and they got a lifeline when Tari Eason missed a layup.
Turner scored 18 points and blocked a couple of shots. Pacers received 12 points and eight boards from Jalen Smith while 11 points apiece from Andrew Nembhard, Isaiah Jackson and Buddy Hield. Indiana shot a 52.4 percent from the field while converting 19 of 43 3-pointers.
Haliburton hit back-to-back pull-up threes that helped Pacers to reach 78-69 lead in the third quarter and got double digits when Hield hit a trey at the 2:04 mark. Hield scored again from deep just before the end of the frame and the Pacers grabbed their largest lead of the night at 100-88.
Meanwhile, The Rockets received 30 points and 16 rebounds from Sengun but couldn’t maintain the pace. VanVleet pitched 18 points and nine assists while Eason notched 16 points and eight boards off the bench.
