NBA All-Star Tyrese Haliburton Talks Ethereum and Potentially Receiving Salary in Crypto

Professional basketball player and NBA All-Star Tyrese Haliburton has said that he would consider taking a portion of his salary in cryptocurrency.

The 24-year-old Indiana Pacers point guard discussed his experiences with crypto during an interview with CoinDesk alongside 2024 NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion Mac McClung.

"I don't ever want to say never," Haliburton told CoinDesk. "With my schedule, I'm not day trading, but my brother does that a lot. So I could see myself taking a large sum of my contract and giving that to my brother to day trade and pay attention to the dips in the market. I can definitely see that being a possibility for me."

McClung said he would "never count it out."

The duo recently had a first-hand experience with crypto at the annual NBA All-Star weekend as Coinbase hosted an event called "moonshot." The event featured a custom-made dome that challenged fans and players to shoot the ball at the "speed of crypto."

"All the technology was super cool," Haliburton said.

The intersection between professional basketball and cryptocurrency isn't a new phenomenon. The Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers play at Crypto.com arena, whilst MiamI Heat used to play at the FTX Arena before it was renamed following the exchange's bankruptcy.

"In the NBA, the presence of crypto is definitely growing, especially with the partnership now between Coinbase and the NBA, just the brand being there I think that's caused more conversations to come about as of late," Haliburton said. "It's not just the players. It's coaches, security staff, it's talked out throughout everybody."

Haliburton said that whilst he first heard about bitcoin, he found himself gravitating to Ethereum, since it was the blockchain that hosted the majority of NFTs.

"I heard of bitcoin a few years back. Spencer Dinwiddie was the first guy in the NBA to ever say anything. This is when I was in college," Haliburton said. "The first crypto I got involved with was Ethereum because that was the blockchain I was using for NFTs, so that's why I've heavily invested in Ethereum. I want to get into bitcoin because it's the blue chip of crypto.