The Indiana Pacers have quite possibly been the biggest surprise in the NBA this season. As of writing this, they are up 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals with a very good shot at making the NBA finals. Coming into the season, no one saw them getting past the Celtics, and when the Cavaliers went 64-18 in the regular season, they seemed like the other possibility to come out of the East. Well, neither of those outcomes came to fruition, and we are more than likely going to see this Pacers team in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000.
Much of their success in the postseason can be attributed to their best player, Tyrese Haliburton, who is one of the best playmaking point guards in the league. With this success, you would think Tyrese Haliburton would have an overall respect throughout the league and sports media, but that is not the case. My inspiration for this article arose from comments made by ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. Repeatedly, he has denied Haliburton’s superstar status, even after Haliburton’s impressive performances against Smith’s New York Knicks. At this point, it just seems like he’s coping with the reality that the Pacers will win the series, sending Brunson and the Knicks back to NYC, but that’s just how I see it.
The start of the Haliburton hate arose in April when The Athletic released a piece that included an anonymous poll from NBA players on season awards. The award that caught most eyes was the Most Overrated Player Award, which was awarded to Tyrese Haliburton himself. At the time, it wasn’t heavily challenged. The summer previous, there was controversy to whether he should’ve been selected to the Team USA basketball squad over the likes of Jalen Brunson. Haliburton’s skillset was the main thing at question. While he does rack up crazy amounts of assists, his personal offensive scoring skillset and defensive capabilities have been scrutinized. This has lead pundits and players alike to question if he was worthy to be selected to two All Star teams and two All NBA third teams.
Come these playoffs, though, Tyrese has started to prove us all wrong. So far, he has averaged a similar stat line to what he normally contributes: 19.4 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 9.8 APG, and 1.2 SPG. So on the surface, he hasn’t been remarkably better than his normal self. But the moments he has produced so far have been nothing short of superstar-esque. First, he finished off the first series against the Milwaukee Bucks with a last-second drive to the rack around one of the best defenders in the league, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Second, he put the Pacers up 2-0 in the second round series against the Cavs with a buzzer beating step back three. So far in this series against the Knicks, he has stepped up even more, posting an average of 24.3 Pts and 11.0 Asts so far. He even hit the famous Reggie Miller choke celebration when he forced overtime in a comeback win in Game 1. So, on the verge of an NBA Finals appearance, has Haliburton solidified this “superstardom”?.
When thinking of superstars in the current NBA, I would narrow down my list to these players: Lebron James, Steph Curry, Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Donovan Mitchell, Victor Webanyama, and Jalen Brunson (he convinced me after owning my Celtics). There are some other names on the bubble, but these guys would be my solidified guys, excluding Haliburton. How does Haliburton match up with these guys, though? Out of every player in the league, Haliburton ranks this season as the third-best player in player impact, the third-best in offensive rating, the eighth highest in net rating, the first in assist percentage, assist/turnover, and assist ratio. These stats pretty much solidify him as the premium playmaker and passer in the league. Other than all of these stats, though, he again is the best player on a team in the NBA Finals, and while the Pacers do have a deep squad, Haliburton still does so much for them.
If the leader of one of the best teams in the NBA, who also leads the league in many offensive metrics, isn’t a superstar, who is? I still only see him as a borderline superstar, as he can’t match up name-wise with the LeBron’s and Jokic’s, but if he does end up winning this title, he will surely become a household name soon enough.
