It started with highlights of the Showtime Lakers, the defining team of the 1980s that blended flashiness with efficiency, on John Haliburton’s television screen.
His youngest son, Tyrese, age seven, would lean in to watch Magic Johnson orchestrate the fastbreak with flair and precision, zipping a no-look pass that left defenders in awe or flipping the basketball in a spot where only a soaring teammate could catch it for an alley-oop finish.
On most days, Tyrese says, he'd head straight home from school, park next to his father on the living room couch and sit for hours, marveling at the 6-foot-9 Lakers point guard who’d implant a valuable lesson in the youngster's mind on how the game should be played.