In late April, Tyrese Haliburton was revealed as the NBA’s “most overrated player” in a poll of anonymous NBA players.
A do-over of that poll may have a different outcome now that Haliburton has gone on an epic playoffs heater that includes a game-winning jumper to stun the Thunder in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday.
Soome overdue recognition is better than none at all and ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt gave Haliburton’s Pacers squad credit for this surprising run that has them three wins from a title.
“The other night, I put my hand up on the show and I said, ‘Look, I was late to the party on [the Pacers],” Van Pelt said postgame to Haliburton.
The NBA Finals Game 1 hero had no choice but to respect Van Pelt’s admittance.
“You’re a real one for that,” Haliburton said while sharing a friendly handshake with the “SportsCenter” host. “A lot of your counterparts wouldn’t admit that.”
Haliburton has certainly silenced the doubters at this point, but Van Pelt keyed in on Indiana being under .500 in late December being the reason for much of the pessimism.
“We were rough,” Haliburton said, admitting that the Pacers were not a great team at the time.
Van Pelt once again admitted to being “late to the party” on the Pacers train, to which the Indiana star responded: “We were late to the party too.”
The Pacers struggled for a good chunk of the regular season, as they couldn’t quite find themselves clicking as a team.
They opened the season 5-5, then didn’t crack a .500 record again until 20 games later when they rattled off a five-game win streak to reach 15-15.
Indiana sat at 16-18 entering the New Year — and that’s when things began to fall into place.
The Pacers went 10-2 in January, then went 15-5 across the final 20 games and entered the playoffs red-hot.
Indiana’s season resembled that of many of its absurd playoff comebacks: dead in the water until things just start clicking.
The Pacers trailed the Thunder by 15 points in the fourth quarter of Game 1 before they stormed back and stole the win in Oklahoma City for a 1-0 finals lead.
For the fourth time this playoffs, Haliburton hit the game-winner.
The win caught the entire world by surprise, including Van Pelt.
“Every single note I had on this card getting ready for this show was about Oklahoma City winning this game,” he told Haliburton. “And I’m sitting here with you. It’s an amazing show that you’re all putting on.”