Tyrese Haliburton Reacts to LeBron 'Laughing In His Face' About Joining Pacers in Text Message

Indiana Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton apparently didn't do a great job of trying to convince star free agent LeBron James to join his team.

During Monday's episode of The Pat McAfee Show, Haliburton revealed that he and James had a brief text message exchange before appearing at Fanatics Fest together last week, and it didn't go very well for him.

"I texted him before Fanatics Fest, and I said, 'Hey, you should come be a Pacer,' and he responded with six laughing cry faces," Haliburton said. "I thought it was two, I said during our interview that it was two, then I went back and looked at the text. It was six. ... Yeah, it hurt."

James invited Haliburton to be his guest on a live episode of his Mind the Game podcast on Friday. While Haliburton tried to get some details on his plans, the 41-year-old remained mum before explaining what he's looking for in his next landing spot.

"What's most important is I want to compete, I want to compete at a high level," he said. "I want to join a franchise that kind of shares the same motto as myself, and that's, like, practicing championship happens every day. But trusting the process more than anything."

The Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and Philadelphia 76ers are viewed as the teams with the best chances to land James. Despite entering his 24th season in the NBA, he is still performing at a high level, and Haliburton is confident that he would make an impact on any team.

"I think if he said he wanted to go to any of the 30 NBA teams, everybody would say, 'Please [come],'" Haliburton said.

However, it appears that Haliburton is done with his recruitment of James after falling short, so the Pacers could be out of the running to land the four-time champion.