Perhaps nobody in the professional sports world has had a better 48 hours than 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and Indiana Pacers star point guard Tyrese Haliburton.
The former signed a whopping five-year, $265 million contract with San Francisco, while the latter continued his iconic NBA playoffs run with another buzzer-beating shot that sent Indiana to overtime in its eventual 138-135 win over the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.
The two star players, both former Iowa State Cyclones, developed a friendship in college and continue to root for each other to this day. Haliburton has posted about Purdy numerous times on social media, and he has been seen wearing both Purdy’s college and NFL jerseys.
The Pacers guard even reacted to the news of Purdy’s 49ers extension on May 16.
Purdy joined KNBR 680’s “Murph & Markus” on Thursday, one day after Haliburton and the Pacers’ Game 1 win over the Knicks, and was asked if he had congratulated his longtime friend on his epic playoff run.
“Not yet. I said this last year, but I’m just letting him do his thing throughout the series and then after I’ll shoot him a text,” Purdy said. “But man, is he a baller and he and I are always texting and keeping in touch and I want nothing but the best for my guy.”
Purdy, who led the 49ers to a near-Super Bowl LVIII victory roughly 15 months ago, is no stranger to the spotlight himself, and has been inspired by what he’s seen from Haliburton and the Pacers, the team he’s rooting for in the NBA playoffs.
“He’s had an incredible playoff run so far and some really iconic moments, hitting shots and just being exciting, especially for the Indiana fan base and everything. And obviously, going back to Iowa State, I’ve seen him do those things in Ames, so for him to be able to do this on this level, I couldn’t be happier for him.”
While both star players likely dreamt of reaching this point in their respective careers during college at Iowa State, they never discussed it together. They had more pressing matters to focus on.
“We didn’t have those conversations,” Purdy said when asked if he and Haliburton ever talked about reaching this point in their careers. “We were just trying to get through accounting and stats together. But outside of that we were always talking and joking around from class to class and we got pretty close there, so it’s cool.”
The classmates-turned-star-professional-athletes both have come close to reaching the mountaintops in their respective sports, and with Haliburton three wins away from punching his ticket to the NBA Finals, Purdy will continue to root for his longtime friend from afar.
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