The Indiana Pacers made one of the great postseason runs the NBA has ever seen this past spring, and though it was fueled by a team-wide effort, there’s no denying that Tyrese Haliburton was the engine that made it all go. Haliburton hit more clutch shots in a few weeks than most players hit in their entire career. His driving layup to eliminate the Bucks capped off a furious comeback.
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His dagger 3 against the Cavs sent the East’s top seed reeling. He killed the Knicks again and again, even throwing up the infamous Reggie Miller choke gesture after bouncing in a long jumper to sent Game 1 to overtime.
The Thunder had looked unbeatable for most of the season, but Haliburton pushed them to the brink with his play under pressure. He capped off a 15-point comeback in Game 1 of the Finals with a game-winner, and he came out on fire in Game 7 before crushingly going down with an Achilles tear.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle appeared on The Zach Lowe Show this week and spoke about how Haliburton’s incredible run actually began when the Pacers traded for him three years ago.
“He was shocked that [the Kings] traded him,” Carlisle said. “We met at a restaurant, it was him, Buddy Hield, I think Tristan Thompson was in the deal as well. Ty was the last guy to walk in.”
“I went up and I shook hands, I looked him in the eye and I said, ‘I know how you feel. I know this is a shocking situation. But look me in the eyes and watch what I’m telling you. This is your team,'” he continued.
“‘You have the opportunity of a lifetime here. I’m turning the keys over to you. I don’t want to call plays, I don’t want to run a lot of plays. You’re running this thing, and I am giving you my trust right now going forward,'” Carlisle told Haliburton.
Just as he does when he grabs a rebound and starts a one-man fast break, Haliburton took that and ran with it. Carlisle said that he instantly jumped in to become a positive member of the community, and as for what he could do on the court, the proof is in the pudding.
Haliburton has been leading with the team with such success that Carlisle was more than happy to compare him to the greatest player in Pacers franchise history, Reggie Miller. The sharpshooter was ahead of his time, and the leader of a team that also reached the Finals, back in 2000.
Carlisle coached Miller for two years in his first stint as Pacers head coach, and he sees similarities between Haliburton and Miller that go beyond the way they celebrate against the Knicks.
“He’s become a second iteration of Reggie Miller in many ways,” Carlisle said of Haliburton. “It’s not just the similarity of their physical build, or some of their affect stuff, or their flair for the moment with the choke signs and all that stuff.”
As Billy Joel once said, it’s a matter of trust. Miller was always a guy who could be trusted with the game on the line, and Haliburton has assumed that same mantle. “He knows that I have implicit trust in him,” Carlisle said, “That at the end of games, whenever possible, we’re not calling timeouts, we’re putting the ball in his hands to create … It all culminated in this absolutely unbelievable run of shotmaking.”
Carlisle is going to have to find new players to trust, at least until Haliburton returns next season. Luckily for him, other players also stepped up in the playoffs to prove their worth, like Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and Bennedict Mathurin. They’ll need to be even better to cover for Haliburton’s loss.
