Tyrese Haliburton Wants To Be Treated As More Than ‘A Prop’ By Bettors

Problem gamblers are becoming a problem for NBA players and coaches.

When sports betting became legal state-by-state in 2018, an unforeseen consequence arose due to its simultaneous availability next to the rise of social media. Players, coaches and teams are now constantly bombarded by social media messages blaming them for the results of bad bets.

This week, Tyrese Haliburton complained to reporters that, "to half the world, I'm just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever. I'm a prop. That's what most of my social media consists of."

Notably, his comments were made in the context of the importance of seeing a psychologist to deal with problems as a person.

But Haliburton mentions how funny it is that people complain to him about how he cost them $1,000 and how he doesn't care at all.

This follows an increasing trend where athletes have suggested sports betting has filled their social media and fan interactions with complaints about lost bets. This isn't exactly new; fans have been yelling at players about their fantasy performance for decades. But the advent and widespread integration of sports betting into not only ancillary but very direct elements of game presentation, from in-game and in-arena sponsorship by sportsbooks to segments on broadcasts specifically tied to betting, have led to greater awareness.

The questions are how to first try to address this behavior and then what can reasonably be expected of athletes in exchange for their position as public personas.

To the first point, the league needs to start developing public service announcements to address this issue. In response to fan behavior at arenas, the league began actively installing PSAs before games, telling fans not to cross certain lines, and reasserting fan conduct guidelines. We've also seen an increase in ejections of fans in response to protect the players. Anecdotally, that seems to have had some success as we've seen a decrease in incidents this season, though clearly, players are still catching unnecessary behavior at arenas.

A series of in-arena and online PSAs that stress the boundary of how no one is responsible for the outcome of your bets but you is a good place to start. The players are not beholden to win bettors money. They are paid to play the game, and bettors bet based on their performances individually and as part of a team. Simply putting front and center what Haliburton talks about regarding players being human and undeserving of that kind of backlash is at least a good start.

While both sportsbooks and the NBA stress resources available to problem gamblers, there likely needs to continue to be a more even distribution of PSAs regarding that behavior as well. Blaming players, or in the case of JB Bickerstaff, threatening coaches (?!) due to gambling losses are pretty clear indications of problem gambling and other mental health concerns. Raising awareness to spark the necessary realizations for these individuals to seek help has to be part of the league's continuing evolution as a business partner to sportsbooks.

Finally, there is the question of the inherent nature of athletes as public figures. No one deserves personal harassment. The players do benefit from the increased revenue from sportsbooks toward the Basketball Related Income tied to their salaries. That doesn't mean they have to deal with unnecessary harassment. Still, things like Haliburton's Twitter (or "X") mentions are, very unfortunately, part of the cost of all the amazing things he's provided for his value in return.

Haliburton's absolutely right to want better behavior from fans, and the league needs to be responsive to that. But until players start coming to the table with the idea that they want betting money excluded from their income opportunities, these things have to be met with some realism regarding what comes with that money. People are going to complain about parlays on Twitter, and while they shouldn't tag Haliburton because, again, that's not how this works, some of this is the downside of the enormous upside gambling revenue has created.

It's possible to accept the consequences of the benefits we desire while also building and advocating for acceptable boundaries regarding the cost of those consequences.