Days after being called overrated, Tyrese Haliburton lashes out at peers with cold-blooded reaction
Tyrese Haliburton earned the unenviable distinction of being the NBA's most overrated player in an anonymous poll made by The Athletic roughly a week ago. The Indiana Pacers point guard responded by putting on a show in Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday. Haliburton scored the game-winning drive in overtime to drag his team to a series-clinching 119-118 victory.
A few hours after the game, Haliburton went on X (formerly Twitter) to lash back at his critics:
"Overrate THAT"
Haliburton put on the superhero cape late in the fourth quarter. With the Indiana Pacers trailing 103-99 with under a minute left, he scored the game's final four points to force an extension. He could not help but respond to peers who voted him as the most underrated player in the NBA.
The Athletic poll is an annual voting that involves NBA players. This year, 158 players took part in the exercise. Haliburton received 14.4% of the votes, which gave him the thankless title over Rudy Gobert and Trae Young. Gobert finished first last year while Young came in second. Haliburton, who earned 3.7% of the votes, was near the bottom of the list.
Tyrese Haliburton allowed his play to do the talking to contest the result of the voting. He stepped up when the Indiana Pacers needed their franchise player to drag them to the finish line. The Pacers are in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference playoffs because of his heroics.
Tyrese Haliburton's drop in regular season averages could be the reason he was voted the NBA's most-overrated player
Last year, Tyrese Haliburton averaged 20.1 points, a league-leading 10.9 assists, 3.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 32.2 minutes per game. He earned his second All-Star nod and finished with an All-NBA selection.
This year, Haliburton's stats dropped to 18.6 PPG, 9.2 APG, 3.5 RPG and 1.4 SPG while seeing his playing time rose to 33.6 MPG. However, he was the catalyst in the Pacers' 14-4 finish and a surge to the No. 4 seed in the East.
The Athletic did not give a reason why Tyrese Haliburton was named the NBA's most overrated player. After keeping mum following the result came out, the star point guard got back at his peers who gave him that distinction.