If the rest of Tyrese Haliburton’s magical evening went according to plan, he would spend those early-morning hours celebrating his Indiana Pacers’ remarkable Game 1 NBA Finals win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, and his latest feat of playoff clutchness, at … Waffle House.
As the willowy Pacers point guard sat shirtless and supremely satisfied at his locker, just minutes removed from the shot that left the place they call “Loud City” stunned silent and sealed the Pacers’ comeback from 15 points down in Thursday’s 111-110 win, he discussed a possible postgame plan with a cameraman for Netflix’s “Starting 5” series, on which he’ll be featured in the coming months.
“Don’t say that too loud,” he said with a smile about the proposed itinerary. “Someone will put that out (publicly).”
If ever there was a sign that the 25-year-old is still a star on the rise, famous enough to worry about his postgame hang being crashed by fans but still determined to sneak in a slice of normalcy at the restaurant once memorialized by the Jonas Brothers, this was it. LeBron James can’t pop into that sort of storied establishment without getting mobbed by the masses — no matter the hour. Ditto for Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and all the other NBA old-heads who have long since become household names on a global scale. And after the late-game wizardry that Haliburton has pulled off in these playoffs, with his pull-up jumper over Cason Wallace with 0.3 seconds left marking his fourth game-winning/overtime-forcing bucket in these past two postseason months, he’s heading down that path to peak prominence as well.
Now raise your hand if you saw this sort of star turn coming when he was traded to Indiana back in February 2022. The Sacramento Kings certainly didn’t.
When the Pacers did the deal that landed them Haliburton, it was the end result of a years-long process in which the Kings tried so desperately to figure out how to form their backcourt of the future. De’Aaron Fox was the clear priority for much of that time, with former general manager Vlade Divac famously passing on Luka Doncic in the 2018 draft, in large part, because he couldn’t envision them co-existing.
But by the time 2022 came, when then-general manager Monte McNair and assistant general manager Wes Wilcox were looking for ways to turn their middling team into a playoff contender, Fox’s market value had plummeted to the point where Haliburton became the focal point of their rebuilding efforts. League sources say the Kings explored trades involving Fox, who had recently signed a five-year, $160 million deal, but simply didn’t find a suitable return.
The discussions with the Pacers, league sources say, were two-pronged but quickly turned from Fox to Haliburton when it was clear that was the only real avenue to a deal. In turn, with first-year Indiana coach Rick Carlisle on the lookout for a point guard who could push the pace and help them return to contention, the Pacers sent All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis, Jeremy Lamb, Justin Holiday and a 2027 second-round pick to the Kings in exchange for Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson. Yet while that deal looked like a win-win for both sides when the Kings were enjoying their “Beam Team” run two years ago, it has since become one-sided in the kind of way that reflects incredibly well on the quality of the Pacers program (and, conversely, not so well on the Kings in light of their latest coaching change in December, decision to trade Fox to San Antonio in February, a second consecutive playoff absence in April and yet another front-office change shortly thereafter).
With longtime Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard and general manager Chad Buchanan at the helm, Indiana made the bold move to add Pascal Siakam (via trade with Toronto) in January 2024, then gave him a max deal the following summer that — in light of his dynamic playoff run — has aged very well.
The Pacers, with a longtime owner in Herb Simon who has always preferred retooling over rebuilding, went from missing the playoffs for three consecutive seasons to back-to-back Eastern Conference finals appearances and this NBA Finals run that they hope ends with the franchise’s first title. And Haliburton, the two-time All-Star out of Iowa State who was drafted 12th overall by the Kings in 2020, has been the one leading the way.
“Our team was kind of at a crossroads,” Buchanan told by phone on Friday while reflecting on the Haliburton trade. “We didn’t really have a guy, like a young player, that you could really build around. Now Domas (Sabonis) was a terrific player and a very productive player. But we felt like in today’s modern NBA, it’s hard to build around a center unless you’ve got, like, a (Denver Nuggets star Nikola) Jokic — an MVP-caliber center. So we tried to target some young guards, playmaking guards around the league that we thought maybe fit the bill. They’re very hard to acquire, obviously.
“We felt like Tyrese, with the way Rick wanted to play, and how we want to build a team in the modern NBA — playing faster, playing a little more random. Tyrese was one of the ideal targets to try to build that type of system around. That’s what coach Carlisle values, and has developed his philosophy (around) over the years and where we’re at today. It was just a great fit from that standpoint.”
When it came to the Pacers’ view of Haliburton’s competitive fiber, they were well aware that he had a chip-on-the-shoulder ethos. From his recruiting status heading into college to his NBA Draft position and beyond, he has been vocal about feeling slighted since those early years.
But what they couldn’t have seen coming, and what was on such full display this season, was the way in which the continued disrespect in some circles would inspire him to reach even greater heights. Exhibit A: His infamous selection as the league’s “Most Overrated Player” in ’s anonymous player poll earlier this spring.
Haliburton is well aware that the sample size of the exercise is small, with a total of 13 players voting for him among the 90 who took part in that specific question. Still, he leaned into the storyline as if it were part of one of those WWE productions he loves so much. Haliburton, whose affinity for pro wrestling has led to his inclusion in the latest edition of WWE2k25 video game, has no problem playing the heel.
For the league’s promotional purposes, that’s the part where Game 1 was a best-case scenario in every imaginable way. Even beyond the discussion about ratings, what the NBA needs now is for the young stars in this matchup to show the mainstream masses why their teams are on this storied stage. That’s how a small-market matchup can help grow the game in the long term.
So recently named MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (who is also one of the five players featured on the second season of Netflix’s show) showed out like he almost always does, finishing with 38 points before missing several late buckets that could have turned the tide. Haliburton’s late heroics meant he earned the spotlight afterward, when he showcased his flashy side by donning sunglasses at the news conference podium and shamelessly promoted his new signature sneaker that — talk about timing — launched on that same day. Like him or not, all of his most marketable qualities were there for all to see.
Regardless of what comes next, the Indiana win in the series opener quieted all that noise about these NBA Finals being a Thunder coronation while legitimizing the Pacers in a way few saw coming. And Haliburton, who plays this underdog role so well, isn’t about to go quietly.
If he goes at all.
“After you have a run like last year and you get swept in the Eastern Conference finals, and all the conversation is about how you don’t belong there and how you lucked out to get there and that it was a fluke, guys are going to be pissed off,” he said after Game 1. “You have an unsuccessful first couple months (the Pacers started 10-15), and now it’s easy for everyone to clown you and talk about you in a negative way, and I think as a group we take everything personal. … It’s not just me. It’s everybody. I feel like that’s the DNA of this group, and that’s not just me. … We do a great job of taking things personal, and that gives this group more confidence.
“I’m really proud of this group. We’ve just all got each other’s back at every point. Any negative thing that’s said about anybody, we’ve got full belief in each other. So the more that’s talked about, like right now, we’re whatever underdog that gives us more confidence as a group. We enjoy that.”
“Tyrese has a special energy to him,” Buchanan said. “You know that, when the game is really on the line, (that) he’s got a lot of self-belief. But I think the most important part is he feels it from everybody else around him, a belief in him and that we trust he’s gonna make the right play when the ball’s in his hands.
“When you feel that from the people around you, that they know you and trust you and believe in you, that just gives you a little extra confidence and sometimes the great things like you’re seeing right now (happen).”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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