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An NBA star was described by his colleagues as “most overrated”. He has the last laugh

An NBA star was described by his colleagues as “most overrated”. He has the last laugh

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Tyrese Haliburton arrived for a photo shoot in a casino in Las Vegas last summer to keep a couple with silver cowboy boots and a resentment.

Before the guards of Indiana Pacers got into a denim outfit and in front of the camera of a magazine, he rattled everything he was grateful for: consecutive appearances at the all-star game of the league, a contract that would pay him an average of around $ 52 million a year and an invitation to play for the United States at the Olympic Parisen.

But what Haliburton seemed particularly Grateful was something completely different – a perceived criticism that “everyone was my success in the first half of last season for a coincidence,” he said.

For a player who was cut to an NBA all star by his youthful travel tray in less than a decade, while collecting minor lights, it would have been just as good to receive a gift.

“I'm in the best form,” said Haliburton to me, “when people talk about me.”

A year later, the NBA, which is still the case, learns.

Since the NBA player of the NBA was appointed by an anonymous coordination of its colleagues in April in April in April in April, Haliburton has written a revenge tour that Indiana landed for a second season in the final of the Eastern Conference. The Pacers are now four victories from their first appearance in the NBA final in 25 years.

As Haliburton, all five 3 points, which he tried and referenced and refuted the tense label on Tuesday against Cleveland against Cleveland against Cleveland against Cleveland-on the way to 31 points in the series clinch victory, which was less than Lebron James.

Haliburton seemed to enjoy getting the last laugh. After hearing “overvalued” in Milwaukee during a series that grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin grew up in the first round, he heard the series by walking past Giannis Antetocounmpo, one of the toughest defenders of the NBA, for a basket with a second realization. He celebrated with a position on X for the focus.

Of the 90 players who were overrated in the Athletic survey for most, 14.4 percent of Haliburton or a total of about 13 players in a league of 450 players. It could have followed Haliburton's significantly slow start into the season when he tried to go through injuries. Nevertheless, the survey followed with the expedant -loaded criticism of a podcast of the Hall of Fame Point Guard Tim Hardaway Sr., who said Haliburton “thinks he was all”.

The feelings of active and retired players were shown, but were hardly universal. But they were all necessary Haliburton, said Bryan Johnikin, who trained Haliburton as a teenager in an Aau team based in Milwaukee and remains close to the guard. He saw how Haliburton's heroic heroism helps Indiana to beat Milwaukee and then put down Cleveland with little surprise.

“I personally not, because as soon as I know that you overrated or said that he doesn't hear, it really motivates him,” said Johnikin.

Johnikin met the guard when Haliburton was 14 years old and wounded after learning that his former Aau team was not interested in returning.

It was Johnikin's role as Haliburton's new coach, he said to understand what motivated the point guard. The award “Mr. Basketball” by Wisconsin, which was awarded to the state's top high school, made the trick. The college in the state of Iowa also increased as a relatively low recruit and sometimes let it be published as a much -debated design view on the small publication of his jump shot.

What perhaps missed these reviews was Haliburton's ability to think about a problem, said Johnikin. Indiana usually rounded off the opposite of the regular season in the playoffs from the regular season to the playoffs and was eaten at the third fastest pace.

“I guarantee you if you put everyone who is in the playoffs in the classroom, he will be the smartest guy,” said Johnikin.

Haliburton achieved an average of 17.5 points, 9.3 assists and 5.5 rebounds in the playoffs, in which the Pacers are 17 points per 100 possessions with Haliburton at the Court and when he is located; No teammate from Indiana has a higher in/from evaluation.

“Hali, this boy, he lets many people with these overvalued 's —,” said former NBA player Dorell Wright in a podcast with Dwyane Wade this week. “We need a recording.”

“His game doesn't look like you expected it, right?” Said Wade. “He has an unorthodox form … He won't be the top 10 in the league, but he will still dominate the game.”

Among the NBA superstars Haliburton, which runs a YouTube channel, in which he plays video games against his brother and prefers medium-sized Indianapolis on the brilliant, big city markets of the league, has a much quiet personality. But as a committed fan since childhood of the professional wrestling and his theaters, he also quickly plays the malignant role of the “heel”.

In addition to his Breakout NBA season and an Olympic gold medal in 2024, one of Haliburton's personal highlights was written in a sketch last year during the WWE Smackdown in which he and New York Knicks Guard Jalen Brunson stared at each other. (The two friends are in real life.)

These playoffs have felt like a long, extensive starish star with the rest of the league. Haliburton followed his series winner against Milwaukee through the breathtaking cleveland with a 3 pointer to end another unlikely comeback in game 2. The research of ESPN showed that the teams have been 3-1,640 since 1998 when they were in the last minute of the fourth quarter or overtime with seven or more points. In this post -season alone, Indiana makes up two of these three victories.

“I think there are always comments behind what I do, positive or negative, and I think it's strange because it often knows people who know nothing about me,” said Haliburton after a win in the second round. “It is usually people who can't avoid or don't spend time with me who are the most to say, but that's all part of it. I am a basketball player, I love what I do.

“… I have the feeling that criticism is sometimes justified, sometimes it's not, but it's all part of it.”

Last year, while warming up before game 7 of a second round against New York in Madison Square Garden, Haliburton noticed a certain fan he heard, the critical comments made, and was determined to make him a one -woman motivational tool and to look at the fan after each basket. The Pacers won, and Johnikin reinforced a strategy that could be worth every post -season penny in the Eastern Conference – where they could face the Knicks or Boston Celtics – and possibly the NBA final.

Indiana should “just pay for people to sit in the front row and just talk Ty crazy, because then he gets rid of it,” said Johnikin. “I'm not worried about him when he goes to New York. Spike Lee and the rest of them talk crazy, he loves that. I call it the 'IT factor'.

“If you talk crazy with Tyrese, he will be sure.”

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