Why is everyone talking about Tyrese Haliburton’s multiple voices?

Tyrese Haliburton enjoyed a breakout campaign during the 2023-2024 NBA season, as he helped lead the Indiana Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals. However, sports fans and people in general are wondering about the different voice inflections he has during different interviews and speaking engagements.

“People say that I have two different voices all the time,” Haliburton said in an interview with ESPN. “I never catch it (in the moment).”

“I watch or listen to podcasts after and I’m like, ‘dang, my voice changed.’ I didn’t do that on purpose," Haliburton told ESPN.

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Sporting News took a closer look at the frequency at which Tyrese Haliburton’s tone of voice changes. They believe that his voice changed six different times during a one-minute interview with J.J. Redick.

Sporting News also analyzed a clip of Haliburton speaking at All-Star Weekend, where his voice shifts multiple times within a short time frame.

ESPN wanted to see if there was a deeper reason for why this might be happening to Haliburton, since it seemed clear that he wasn’t trying to play a trick on anyone.

ESPN spoke with Dr. Michael Johns, the Director of the University of Southern California’s Voice Center. He gave a practical analogy for what might be happening to Haliburton’s vocal cords. “It’s like putting aluminum foil on a guitar string; the sound changes when the vibration is irregular.”

Johns also brought up the fact that Haliburton uses his voice a lot in a short period of time, as he yells and speaks to teammates during the course of an NBA game. “They can develop some injury to their vocal folds, vocal nodules or vocal swelling that can cause some rough quality to the voice.”

Haliburton isn’t the only NBA star that seems to have a changing voice. Minnesota Timberwolves forward Karl-Anthony Towns also has varied inflections when speaking, as OutKick and others have pointed out.

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Based on what Sportskeeda and others have written about, Towns’ voice seems to change primarily during postgame on-court interviews. This had led some to believe that the Timberwolves star is intentionally making his voice deeper in certain situations.

Maybe Towns is varying his voice pitches in order to prepare for a career outside of basketball. In 2022, Bleacher Report revealed that he had a voice-acting role in an HBO Max series called Velma, based on the Scooby-Doo cartoons.

Former NBA player Jeff Teague doesn’t think Towns’ voice shifts help his reputation. Teague said on FanDuel’s “Run It Back”: “I think it’s because he changed his voice in his interviews. But he’s really cold, I think he’s one of the best players in the league. He just gets a bad rap for stuff like that off the court.”

Athletes have had injuries to their throats over the years in different sports, which lends credence to what Dr. Johns told ESPN. While it has not been confirmed that Haliburton or Towns suffers from a throat ailment, here are a few athletes who have had to deal with injuries in that area.

In 2006, Seattle SuperSonics guard Earl Watson suffered a fractured larynx, which forced him to not eat for 36 straight hours, according to ESPN. He said at the time, “I need peace of mind with what’s really wrong. This is serious.”

Former NFL player Henry Anderson fractured his larynx and trachea in 2017, according to the San Diego Union Tribune. He told NBC Sports, “I didn’t think you could hurt your throat that bad.” Doctors told him that he could have possibly died if the airways in the throat were fully blocked.

NFL centers often need to use their voice to communicate protection assignments at the line of scrimmage, but Ragnow’s throat wouldn’t cooperate for an extended period of time. He suffered a laryngeal fracture, and was also monitored to ensure that the integrity of his airways were intact.

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