Recently, there has been some talk across the NBA that perhaps Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton is overrated. But he seemed to answer those critics by leading his team to a stunning five-game triumph over the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that won 64 regular-season games, in the second round of the playoffs.
He hit a gutsy game-winning shot in Game 2 to give the Pacers a 2-0 series lead after the first two games in Cleveland. Then, in Game 5 in Cleveland, he scored 31 points on 10-of-15 field-goal shooting and 6-of-10 from 3-point range, plus eight assists to put the Cavs away for the summer.
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James reacted with a post on X (formerly Twitter) in support of Haliburton. Haliburton, in turn, responded to James during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” following the Pacers’ series victory.
“LeBron said people would want to play with me for winning,” Haliburton said. “I’m sure people would love to play alongside me.
“… Yeah, the Bron thing was super, super cool,” Haliburton further added. “We texted back and forth last night. I’ve grown a lot of cool relationships from that Olympic experience and it’s been really cool.”
While Haliburton wasn’t named to the All-Star team this season, he was named to the All-Star team in both of the previous two seasons. In taking Indiana to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second year in a row, he has forced people to open their eyes and take notice of how dangerous a player he is.
Indiana is set to take on the New York Knicks, a potent and gritty team, in the East Finals. The team got past the Knicks in seven games in the second round last year thanks to some big performances from Haliburton, and one should expect a few more from him this time around.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Tyrese Haliburton’s response to LeBron James’ post about him
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
