Although injuries played a factor for Cleveland, there were opportunities for the Cavaliers to win the series. Notably in Game 2, the Pacers overcame a seven-point deficit in less than a minute, thanks to the heroics of Haliburton.
After a players’ survey revealed Haliburton was the most overrated player in the league, James was quick to defend him against his haters, along with pointing out that plenty of players would want to play next to a selfless guard. Haliburton appreciated that shoutout from James, who he built a close relationship with during the Olympics last summer, via The Pat McAfee Show:
“I want to play the right way and I want to win, that’s the most important thing to me. LeBron said people would want to play with me, yeah, if we’re winning, I’m sure people would love to play alongside me… Yeah, the Bron thing was super, super cool. 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.”
Media coverage has been highly debated this season and for a guard who is one of the best playmakers currently like Haliburton to get negative narratives is surprising. Scoring is secondary for Haliburton as he orchestrates Indiana’s offense and that is a similar responsibility that James encountered early in his career.
For small market teams, they need to acquire talent naturally or swing for the fences in a trade. The Pacers did that with Haliburton by trading away Domantas Sabonis to the Sacramento Kings and Indiana is seeing those benefits now.
Frankly, the postseason does require luck, but teams also need to be playing their best basketball at this time. The Pacers are doing that and these accomplishments are nothing to shrug out and potential free agents may be taking note of what Haliburton is doing right now.
LeBron James & Tyrese Haliburton share mutual respect
Playmakers and orchestrators tend to get overlooked in favor of scorers, but Tyrese Haliburton is shutting down those narratives. LeBron James has been that way his entire career and similar to Haliburton, received criticism for it.
Seeing what the Pacers have done in two consecutive postseasons, James has been outspoken about their success and both stars share a mutual respect for one another as their relationship continues to grow.
