Good Karma Brands CEO Craig Karmazin detailed his role during a recent Milwaukee Bucks NBA playoff game against the Indiana Pacers, where a Tyrese Haliburton game-winning shot ended the Bucks’ season. Karmazin, who is the founder of Good Karma Brands and co-owner of the Bucks, stopped by the ESPN Milwaukee studios last Friday to talk about his experience from Game 3 of the series, which included an interesting interaction with Haliburton’s father.
Specifically, John Haliburton, who made headlines for confronting Bucks superstar center Giannis Antetokounmpo following the conclusion of the series last Tuesday, was involved in an incident with a fan during Game 3 in Milwaukee. That game, which the Bucks won 117-101, was held at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Consequently, the incident resulted in Karmazin having to step in to separate John from the fan.
“Tyrese’s dad, he was getting into a fight after Game 3 with a fan. I got in between it,” Karmazin said, detailing the engagement on ESPN Milwaukee. “One of our fans was being pretty obnoxious and talking smack to him. He was talking smack and saying, ‘You may beat us in Game 4, but I guarantee you, you won’t win a game in Indiana, so we’re going to win this series.’ And there were expletives going back and forth between a fan.”
Afterward, Karmazin discussed how he had to get in the middle of the two parties during Game 3 in an effort for cooler heads to prevail.
“I kind of grabbed him by the shoulders from behind and I said, ‘Hey, we were in Indianapolis for the All-Star Game with Tyrese and Woj and what he is as a player, as a person, you should just be so proud of him,’” said Karmazin. “I was just there trying to defuse the whole situation, but I clearly was not able to defuse him. It didn’t carry over long-term.”
Since then, John Haliburton has apologized for the altercation following Game 5 with Antetokounmpo, but was unfortunately removed from attending any of the Pacers’ playoff games for the remainder of the season. To his credit, Tyrese Haliburton has said multiple times that he believes his father’s actions were wrong.
Finally, Karmazin noted he is no longer interested in what John Haliburton has to say about the incidents both in Milwaukee and in Indiana regarding the series. However, he was impressed by Tyrese taking ownership for his comments regarding his father’s actions.
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