Tyrese Haliburton

  Tyrese Haliburton. Before the NBA Playoffs began, how many people outside of Oshkosh, Wisconsin (his home town); Ames, Iowa (he played college basketball at Iowa State); Sacramento (his first stop in the league); and his present home in Indiana knew who he was —even with “The Haliban” as he is known, being a member of the victorious 2024 U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team? Answer: not too many. 

Now this budding superstar is a very well known commodity in the NBA. For good reason. For his unerring ability to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in these playoffs has been incredible. Ask the fans in Milwaukee. Cleveland. New York. And now Oklahoma City. They have seen his wizardry on a basketball court and went away amazed or dismayed. 

For a guy whom his peers voted “Most Overrated,” he is anything but. If nothing more, Haliburton is a savior to the Pacers’ faithful time and time again. He is also the villain whom you want to hate but is must-see TV for his theatrics. Which helped the ratings in a year where the stars like Steph Curry and Lebron James were gone from the post-season quickly and quietly. 

I kind of knew who he was before this recent burst of near immortality. I had seen him play at Iowa State and he had the look of a confident player. 

Drafted 12th by Sacramento, Haliburton played well enough to garner All-Rookie Team honors in his maiden season out West. But it was Sacramento where he performed, which was almost like being in the Witness Protection Program. 

The Kings brain trust is in perpetual disarray, not unlike the workings of the nearby State Capitol. They felt they were finally putting the pieces together for a winning team and then swung a trade for a big man in Domantas Sabonis in a six  player swap plus Sacramento receiving a second round draft pick.

Indiana was ecstatic to receive Haliburton in the trade. Pacers’ Head Coach Rick Carlisle described his new player as “an elite young point guard that affects the game positively in many, many ways.” How right he was back in 2022. 

Pacers’ President Kevin Pritchard, in conjunction with GM Chad Buchanan and Buchanan’s fellow Division III cohorts in the front office, all were aware that they were getting someone special. As long as Haliburton stayed healthy; he had an injury history going back to high school, through college and even in the pros. 

So Buchanan assembled a roster which could win if things broke right, led by Haliburton. The team can play its entire roster and not feel like it was giving up much ground, if any, to its opponents. Which is testimony to the fiery but savvy Carlisle managing his team, priming them for the playoffs. 

Still, the centerpiece for the team is Haliburton. Once he arrived in Indiana, he became an All-Star. He was named to the All-NBA Third Team the past two years and he led the league in assists in 2024. In 2022, he showed some greatness by becoming the first player in NBA history to record 40-plus assists and no turnovers in a three game stretch; Haliburton averaged 20 points per game during that period. In December, 2023, he recorded 20 points, 20 assists and zero turnovers joining Chris Paul as the only players to do this. He continued to set personal and team records in scoring and assists, etching his name in NBA annals with such point guard luminaries as Magic Johnson and John Stockton.

In the process, Haliburton and his mates reached the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Unfortunately, he hurt his ankle and was unavailable. Eventual champion Boston swept Indiana in four games. That may have been a foreshadowing of how important Haliburton was to the team and how good the Pacers could become if he stayed healthy. 

So, it seems that the Pacers were on a mission of redemption. It didn’t all gel for the team until late into the second half of the season. Indiana began to play like they belonged in the discussion with the best teams in the NBA—Cleveland, Boston, New York, OKC. 

Except that the pundits never saw it that way. Which was fine with the Pacers. The team plays like a group with a real chip on its shoulder—underestimated and maligned, never really better than the teams it played. 

Yet here the Pacers are—in the NBA Finals. Paired with a team in the Oklahoma City Thunder which had a great regular season—one of the best ever—and which was expected to roll to a championship. Led by M.V.P. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC has been a juggernaut thus far, taking down Memphis, Denver and Minnesota in its run to the Finals. 

To me, the 2025 playoffs have been about the Indiana Pacers and specifically Haliburton. Somehow, the Pacers get themselves into trouble repeatedly, falling behind by large margins. 

Yet repeatedly, the team digs itself out of deep holes with a combination of in-your-face defense creating crucial turnovers, plus adding clutch shot after shot and critical rebounds to get themselves to the place they evidently want to be. Ask each of its victims, which now includes OKC with Haliburton’s amazing shot that put Indiana in the lead for the first time in the game with 0.3 seconds left to play. 

I am sure that how the Pacers upended the favored New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, with Halilburton in the lead, was the final straw for ownership and led to the firing of Tom Thibodeau as Head Coach. In Game 4 of that series, Haliburton became the first player in playoff history to achieve 30+ points, 15+ assists and have no turnovers. 

Haliburton’s  all-around game is that good. As Brian Windhorst of ESPN put it after Haliburton’s game winning bucket on Thursday night, this…is unequivocally…the greatest run of clutch shooting we have seen in the history of the sport.”

Indeed, we are witnessing something special. From a player who has transcended into greatness and has led his team by example. He is brash. His father is cocky like his son and overzealous—he was banned from the floor after a post-game verbal altercation with Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo when Indiana downed the Bucks. 

Haliburton’s head is in the game full time and at full speed. He never believes he makes the mistakes—it is either the opponent who commits the error or the officials made the wrong call. Watch how many times he implores Carlisle to stop the game for a review to overturn what Haliburton perceived to be a slight against him. And he barks a lot when called for a foul, which most times is an accurate call. 

What this tells me is that Tyrese Haliburton is first and foremost a competitor. He lives and breathes basketball at its highest level. He may be wiry at 6’5” and a bit overmatched on defense when posted up. But his heart and desire are there. 

With his game-winning heroics, he reminds me of the kids I knew growing up and who probably were like the kids he grew up with on the courts in Wisconsin. Fantasizing about having the ball in his hands, the clock running down to precious few seconds, and having the ability to take the final shot to propel his team on another unreal comeback. 

He may play with the killer instinct of an assassin. Tyrese Haliburton embodies the inner kid in all of us. 

There may be a lot going on in sports right now. Edmonton and Florida are knotted in their Stanley Cup Finals series., The French Open has reached its final matches. The Belmont Stakes matched Sovereignty and Journalism once more. The Yankees and Red Sox are meeting in the Bronx. Aaron Rodgers finally signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers (who cares?)

And the trial judge finally approved the settlement in House vs NCAA, changing the money flow even more in the sordid underbelly of college athletics—it was a frightening sight to see the Texas Tech softball pitcher who received $1 million to leave Stanford and then re-up with Tech for another seven figures. What about going to college to learn and play, not just to play for pay? (Not money well spent—Texas defeated Tech for the title)

However, for the present, my focus is on Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers as they continue their improbable journey through the playoffs.