Get an All-Access pass as Tyrese Haliburton comes up huge again and Indiana takes a 1-0 series lead in the 2025 NBA Finals.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The last time he played for a world title, Tyrese Haliburton was not holding the ball, hoping to make shots and magic happen as the clock ticked away. He was holding a spot on the bench, watching someone else shoot and celebrate.
Ten months have passed since then, since Stephen Curry hit a last-minute bucket from almost midcourt and flashed the night-night gesture to France. It seems such a disconnection, given Haliburton’s minor role on Team USA during the Olympics, to now, where he’s the designated savior of the Pacers, and a more bolder-faced name in the NBA, and the flavor of this NBA postseason.
From one summer to the next, the stage hasn’t changed — gold medal journey in Paris, NBA championship pursuit in the States — but the metamorphosis of Haliburton is indeed striking if not sudden.
He was a speck on that USA team of stars. Social media poked fun at him and he shrugged and, with self-deprecation, poked fun at himself.
He then started the 2024-25 season slowly, which threw gasoline on the suspicion that Haliburton was merely a next-level-down player, certainly not worthy of elevation on the list of young players poised for a league takeover.
Whenever his unorthodox jump shot clanked during this rough patch, whenever he made an error, he heard chants in opposing arenas — Overrated! — partly due to the results of a poll taken by The Athletic website which surveyed a fraction of current players, partly due to that ghostly Olympic experience.
The rise and cleansing of Haliburton and how he has distanced himself from that player and those situations is something to behold. It’s the dominant theme of the 2025 playoffs and, at least through one shocking game, the 2025 NBA Finals.
Take a look at Tyrese Haliburton’s unforgettable moments from the postseason so far, including his heroics from Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Had any of the other more celebrated and anointed 20-something stars done what Haliburton is pulling off this postseason — dropping game-winning shots each round, shushing the New York crowd, issuing a triple-double without a turnover — how quick would the coronation be? Like, for Anthony Edwards or Luka Dončić or Jalen Brunson or a few others?
But since it’s Haliburton, who doesn’t play above the rim, who lacks a healthy swagger, whose game is more about making the right pass and the right play than taking the most shots, there seems to be … a hesitation?
And would he need to beat the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder for the championship to change perception?
When the selections were made for Team USA last spring, there was only one that instantly caused conversation, both among NBA players and beyond. Uh, Haliburton?
Yes, he had an assists title, was an All-Star, third team All-NBA. Still, this was the supposed best 12 American players. There were whispers inside NBA locker rooms and questioning on social media.
Beyond the surface, having Haliburton made sense. He had a gift for passing, better than the vast majority of players, and therefore could mesh in any lineup placed on the floor by coach Steve Kerr.
Once Kawhi Leonard was a scratch because of injury, Celtics guard Derrick White, a defensive specialist, replaced him and was given backup playing time once projected for Haliburton. That was the first slight thrown in the direction of Haliburton, who saw just 26 minutes total in the Games.
Kerr raved about Haliburton’s professionalism: “I thought the way he handled not playing was awesome. He handled it with humor and loved being part of the whole thing despite not playing much. That showed his character.”
After getting the gold medal, Haliburton posted a picture on social and wrote: “When you ain’t do nun on the group project and still got an A.”
When you ain’t do nun on the group project and still get an A🏅 pic.twitter.com/xpshYZhMyA
— Tyrese Haliburton (@TyHaliburton22) August 10, 2024
The NBA season outlook for him and the Pacers last fall was more favorable, and Haliburton was anxious to confirm a place for himself in the NBA pecking order.
In his first 15 games, he shot below 40% with some clunkers — 1-for-7, 3-for-14, 2-for-11 — and seemed unbalanced during that stretch. It wasn’t a coincidence that Indiana followed his lead. The Pacers stumbled into the new calendar year at 16-18.
Then, it flipped drastically for the player and by extension, the team. Haliburton dropped 33 points and 15 assists on Miami. Later, 25 and 10 on Kerr and the Warriors, 30 and eight on the Pistons. He averaged 20.3 and 8.6 in January. The Pacers lost only once that month — they actually went unbeaten in the US since that loss was in Paris against the Spurs — and finished the regular season along with OKC as the hottest team since 2025 began.
The best for Haliburton was just beginning.
His game-winning layup — over Giannis Antetokounmpo, no less — with 1.3 seconds left in overtime eliminated the Bucks in the first round. His winning 3-pointer in Game 2 against the Cavaliers helped send them home in the second round. His tying 3-pointer in Game 1 at the end of regulation — followed by the Reggie Miller-influenced throat-grab — dazed the Knicks, who never recovered in the Eastern Conference Finals.
And lastly, the calm 18-footer with 0.3 seconds left to ice OKC in the Finals opener. Strung together, these heroics form a legendary body of work, all done under duress and with stakes high. There are Hall of Famers who lack this amount of big-gamesmanship — and done in a single postseason at that.
Tyrese Haliburton hits a game-winner with 0.3 seconds remaining to cap the Pacers' stunning rally in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Should there be any hesitation to dismiss any and all unflattering labels once given to Haliburton? Hasn’t he done enough?
Haliburton shrugs at the suggestion of being included on any who-got-next campaign to identify tomorrow’s stars today. Those discussions often veer beyond pure basketball anyway, towards marketing that includes the superficial and cosmetic, which don’t necessary fall in his favor.
“My jumper, the way it looks, that’s always been criticized coming into the NBA,” he said. “I think that was honestly a big part of it. And I think sometimes I have an effect on the game that isn’t necessarily the gaudy box score numbers … the way our game is now, the way the game is digested by fans sometimes, I think it’s a lot of box score watchers.
“So if my box score doesn’t look the way that it’s supposed to, I think that that can be a part of it, as well. I don’t necessarily know the answer, but I know that it’s probably not going to stop anytime soon.”
Haliburton is hopelessly a throwback, to a place where point guards infused confidence in their teammates by giving them the ball in the right place for the right shot. That was their priority.
He led the league by a wide margin with 9.2 hit-ahead passes — transition passes that advance the ball up-court — per game, according to Second Spectrum tracking. He leads the playoffs with 9.0 per game, the most for any player in the 12 years of tracking such data.
He’s not a volume scorer, he’s not breaking ankles, he’s not in the air. And that doesn’t translate into popularity in a highlights-saturated hoop world that’s often fixated on anything viral.
Which raises an observation: If you watch an entire game, you appreciate Haliburton. If not, you miss what makes him special. He’s had to make game-winning shots in the playoffs to tap into a larger audience.
Haliburton will have a few no-shows where he disappears for large stretches. He had one such game in each of the previous three playoff rounds where he shot a combined 7-for-28 with 23 assists, all below his standards; the Pacers lost two of those games.
So even with his clutch shots, this postseason has dents and Haliburton is learning that the great players keep a high bar throughout. That’s what separates them from the merely good.
Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton talks with the media before Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals.
“Obviously, I want to be the best,” he said. “I want to be great. I want to squeeze every ounce of God-given ability that I have to be the best player I can be. But any doubt is always good for me. I love to hear that stuff. I’ll continue to tell you guys in certain moments that it doesn’t matter what people say. But it matters and I enjoy it.”
The NBA Finals can be a tease. Nothing is certain from one game to the next. Heroes can be goats. And vice-versa. Haliburton is well aware of how those winds blow. He knows how precarious his present perch can be, so high up, where he can’t afford a stumble.
There’s something almost mystical about his last few months, and just to be generous, from last summer to this: The overcoming of Olympic inactivity, then tripping out of the regular-season gate, then muffling all the noise about being overrated … to carving out an entirely new and respected reputation.
The cleansing of Haliburton is now hitting the rinse cycle. Suppose he wins three more games in the Finals? And a first-ever NBA title for the Pacers? And upsets OKC?
Will that finally be the time to make peace with Tyrese?
* * *
Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery.
