Tyrese Haliburton trolled Kentucky alumni and hits a little too close to home

Let’s say your youth soccer team, Blue Team, won the local championship … or some comparable accomplishment, and Jimmy’s dad was simply instrumental to the construction of the team and its success. He was head coach, the X’s and O’s guy, he was calling all his dad friends to bring orange slices and recruiting Jimmy’s classmates who did well on the FitnessGram Pacer Test; absolutely irreplaceable. If Jimmy’s dad then started coaching Red Team four years later, after you’ve long since graduated the realm of youth soccer, who would you root for?

Tyrese Haliburton may have uncorked a fascinating rabbit hole for us to metaphor our way down into, by pressing send on this post on X, in which he either is roasting former Kentucky players, roasting John Calipari — the former coach of Kentucky (who lost), or perhaps is roasting the University of Arkansas (who won, and are still winning), where Calipari is now the coach. In any case, check out the post and then we’re going to unpack what it means.

Personally, I always took it as a given that you root for the team that you were on, be it the college you went to, the youth soccer team you played on (Blue Team all the way) regardless of coaching infrastructure and changes at the top. But I am not a top-tier Division 1 college basketball player, and I do not know what it’s like to be recruited or to go to battle with a coach as intense and legendary as Calipari. So perhaps there is more to this.

My friend who raised this whole issue with me pointed out that for players that good, their coach is like … 90 percent of their college experience. For Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, perhaps he thinks he went to Calipari University more than he did Kentucky. And for players who came later than Shai, imagine the dynamics of the transfer portal and all the movement they are now afforded. Sure, they graduated with the checkered blue on their back, but had Calipari left after their freshman year to go to Arkansas, many would have tried to follow him. 

It's okay to switch which team you root for ... as a player

It happens all the time in college sports, often with very high profile players like Travis Hunter and Deion Sanders going from Jackson State to Colorado together. But imagine all the players who didn’t leave — they must feel some serious affinity for the coach that believed in them and invested in their careers and development. As a gut feeling, it sounds crazy. But when you unpack the actual situation of a Division 1 college athlete these days, it really isn’t. 

Haliburton, who went to Iowa State (the team that defeated Kentucky by the way, he’s not just throwing shade for fun), appears to be saying there should be some shame in abandoning your alma mater for wherever your coach is these days. And for fans, that’s true. Imagine following players or coaches to their new destinations … like imagination if there were people who changed their whole NBA allegiance based on where LeBron James plays? Imagi—I’m being told people actually do that. Really? You just … were a Cavs/Heat/Cavs/Lakers fan and next year you have to be like … a Warriors fan? Or a retired fan? What?

But for college basketball players, I see the other side of it. When the teams are so small, the outside world is probably heavy on the noise and light on the fulfillment. But in the foxhole with your squad and the coach who believed in you? Maybe Haliburton could be a little nicer to former Blue Teamers who find themselves liking Red Team these days. Personally, I’m still Blue Team Youth Soccer all the way — that 4th Grade season was just way too good. But I get it, I won’t blame any of my former teammates. We can all still be friends. 

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