INDIANAPOLIS — The music blasted through Gainbridge Fieldhouse as Tyrese Haliburton rose out of his seat during pregame intros and bobbed his head. “Many Men” by 50 Cent boomed through the speakers. The opening line? “Many men wish death upon me.” The song has been Haliburton’s walkup tune for every Indiana Pacers home game, but it served as an especially fitting intro Tuesday night when the starting lineups were announced.
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Earlier in the day, The Athletic published its anonymous player poll in which Haliburton’s peers voted him the most overrated player in the NBA. The 25-year-old certainly didn’t look like it as he steered the Pacers to a 123-115 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks with 21 points, a game-high 12 assists and five rebounds.
After Haliburton notched his sixth career playoff double-double to push Indiana to a 2-0 lead in its opening-round series against Milwaukee, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle called the anonymous player poll “b——-” as he defended his star point guard.
“I heard about this and the other guys on the list were Jimmy Butler and Giannis (Antetokounmpo),” Carlisle said. “I want to see the guys’ faces that voted those guys. … This is a b——- poll. Not everybody even answered in the poll. Guys were able to answer if they wanted to. They were asked on camera or with a microphone. The whole thing’s b——-, OK? And it’s really a shameful thing.”
The Athletic asked 90 players who the league’s most overrated player is, and Haliburton received 14.4 percent of the votes. He finished first ahead of Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert (10.0 percent), while Butler finished fourth (5.5 percent) and Antetokounmpo tied for 10th (2.2 percent).
“Jimmy Butler would be a finalist for MVP if he had gotten to Golden State a month and a half earlier (with) what that guy’s done,” Carlisle continued. “And Giannis? Are you kidding me?”
Haliburton, who’s joked about being chronically online, saw the poll results before Game 2. He said being voted as the NBA’s most overrated player did not affect his performance as he notched the second 20-point and 10-assist playoff game of his career.
“I must be doing something right if that’s the case,” Haliburton said of the poll. “I don’t have a big speech or comment on it. All I care about is this locker room and winning games, and we’re in position to go to Milwaukee and continue this series on. … I know who I am. I’m confident in my own skin and not worried what anybody thinks.”
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Haliburton has always been candid about hearing the outside noise that other athletes claim they’re immune to. He welcomes the criticism, whether it’s from his spectators or his peers, and files it away as a reminder of his ascension into stardom. On Tuesday night, whether he needed extra motivation or not, his intensity was palpable.
Haliburton began the game with three straight assists to orchestrate an 8-0 start, and then he called his own number. He scored a layup on Bucks center Brook Lopez midway through the first quarter, duping him with a ball fake before easily putting the ball through the rim, and briefly celebrated by pointing to his family, who cheered from the baseline.
Haliburton crossed up Milwaukee star Damian Lillard a few minutes later before drilling a step-back 3 and chirping toward Lillard as he ran back on defense. He drove past Lopez again in the second quarter and threw down a right-handed tomahawk dunk, giving Indiana a 62-54 lead, and proceeded to yell at the ball as if he was angry at something or, in this case, someone.
“I’m an emotional player, a guy who plays and likes to have joy, likes to have fun,” Haliburton said. “I know if you’re not a Pacers fan, a lot of people don’t really care about that. But I don’t give a f—. I just want to win. That’s really just the way I feel, and I’m not gonna change who I am to please other people. I think I’ve had a lot of success by being me.”
Through five NBA seasons, Haliburton has two All-Star selections, made the All-NBA third team last year and won a gold medal with Team USA in the Paris Olympics. Teammate Pascal Siakam, a three-time All-Star and NBA champion in his own right, believes Haliburton has compiled a hell of a resume so far, and he’s proud to share the floor with him as they try to lead the Pacers back to the Eastern Conference finals.
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“He makes us go, so we’re gonna ride with Tyrese until the wheels fall off,” said Siakam, who scored six of his 24 points Tuesday off three assists from Haliburton. “He can impact the game, not just by scoring, but being able to open the floor up for everybody else, put everybody in the right positions and doing it with swag.
“So, at the end of the day, some people are gonna like it. Some people are not gonna like it. I think he’s an unselfish player out there when he plays, and he has one thing in mind — to win.”
(Photo: Jeff Haynes / Getty Images)
