This article is really great and shows a lot of what makes his on-court play amazing, but I these bits about who he is off the court make me love him more than anything:
At the end of every season, Pritchard and Buchanan sit down with every player on the Pacers roster to talk about the way things went—a standard practice in the NBA world. One question they always ask is:
What more can we do, as management, to help the team?
Some players might have notes about communication or travel policies. Others might have a few quibbles about the team facility. But an exit interview with Haliburton has a way of turning into a think tank. How can we help out the equipment manager? Does the strength coach get paid extra to come work guys out on off days? And why, when the team goes on the road, do we offer meals for players after shootaround but not for the rest of the support staff?
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a player, a coach, a ball boy, a GM—he’s gonna treat everyone the same,” says Pacers assistant Isaac Yacob
and
The impact of every star is felt differently. Some of the league’s most incredible players clock in and clock out, and that works for them. Haliburton doesn’t really operate that way. When the Pacers have a team outing, he organizes it and books cars for everyone. If he and some teammates are going out for dinner after a game, there are no cliques. The whole team is invited—and Haliburton is paying.
Haliburton’s father often reminds him that in this role, he’s responsible for the livelihood of everyone around him. Part of seeing the bigger picture is understanding the costs of people depending on you. What qualifies Haliburton for that kind of responsibility, beyond being one of the premiere point guards in the league, is that he cares enough to know as much as he can. “He knows everything about every guy,” Buchanan says. “Where they’re from, what AAU team they played for, what NBA teams they played for, their contract, who their agent is. He knows all that shit. So he’s already invested. He can put himself in their shoes.”
I own a Devin Vassell jersey and love the guy, but man, it’s hard not to imagine Wembanyama getting passes from Hali instead of Jeremy Sochan.
I think the Spurs probably miss out on Wemby in the first place if they had drafted Haliburton, but it still hurts a little.
This makes me so mad we didn’t draft him. Not only is he a good player but he’s a solid guy
Am I a fan now? I think I’m a fan now
As a Pacers fan, man I feel blessed to watch him every night. We’ve been looking for a real star since PG left and it feels weird having a player who’s getting a lot of media attention lol
Now we just need Mathurin to grow into the star he’s supposed to be and then we’re going to be real dangerous
Who in their right mind would wanna go to Indianapolis? It’s mean but fair
I get that Fox was ahead of Tyrese in development and they wanted to get him help to make the play offs but HOW THE FUCK DO YOU TRADE THIS GUY? He was doing this same shit in Sacramento as a rookie
Tyrese would’ve been wasted on the kings if he stayed. Neither fox nor Hali would’ve been the players they are today.
This is not a shot at hali but what Carlisle is doing is what Hali needed, a team of his own to maximize everything hali was good at and put the ball in his hands or run plays through him. I personally don’t think this mega dominant style with a lot of assists leads to actual succes in the playoffs, but it’s bringing out everything of hali especially with all the shooters. And when the time comes when mathurin or whoever else as a star comes up where they can trust to put the ball in their hands instead of Tyrese, then the team can start winning and change it up a bit. It was good for Hali and fox, the kings needed another big anyways. Having 2 of the same thing isn’t always better
I’d challenge your statement about his mega dominant style. He’s a lot less dominant than some other stars. For the amount of points he generates his time with the ball is lower than some other extremely ball dominant players and his usage is only at 25%
He just stuffs the stat sheet because he’s SO efficient at what he does. He doesn’t stand there and pound the rock like prime Harden for example
That’s what I mean it’s not a bad thing because he’s good at it on this young team that can shoot and run transition. Maybe he doesn’t have the ball a lot and doing harden stuff where he camps with the ball but stuff is run through him a lot
People forget, but Fox’s value was at it’s absolute lowest when we made this trade. He bulked up in the offseason and lost all his shooting touch and wasn’t as explosive. We could’ve traded Fox, but it would’ve been for like… Tobias Harris. That doesn’t get us to where we are now.
We literally traded and got an All-NBA center that was a way better fit next to Fox. Everyone also acting like Fox isn’t putting up close to 30 a night in crazy efficiency.
HOW THE FUCK DO YOU TRADE THIS GUY?
Because the whole was less than the sum of its parts and we got the third best center in the NBA in return?
Like, this isn’t fantasy basketball, at the end of the day you need to put a product on the court, and the trade made the Kings a dramatically better team.
How is Hali off ball ? Cause I’m sure there are some plays were u want mathurin or NetBeans cooking
I’m sure he’s fine. The main problem is “how is everyone else on ball?”
NetBeans
You should give Eclipse a try. It’s really great.
So jot that down
I was looking at his stats yesterday and I’m really impressed . And not even just the 24/12 on 50/40/90 shooting . But his assist to turnover ratio is crazy good
Best thing that’s happened to our franchise in a decade
He just needs to play some defense but I understand because his offense workload
“Channing, this is for youuuuuuuuu”
*through Christ
Love you forever baby boy ❤️