Inside the incredible ascent of the Tyrese Haliburton superstar with Indiana Pacers

To most NBA Fans, relaxed or passionate, Tyrese Haliburton’s superstar jump has taken place in recent weeks.

There was the tribute to Reggie Miller At Madison Square Garden in match 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. The almost perfect match of 32 points, 15-assistants, 12 reimbursed, five volumes and zero-turn in the match 4 against the Knicks. And then, of course, the shot he struck with 0.3 seconds remaining in match 1 of the NBA final to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 111-110, which silenced the most noisy fans in the league Thursday evening at the Paycc Center.

Subsequently, Haliburton charmed in his post-match interviews, as only a certain caliber of superstars can, joking with Scott Van d’Aspn that “we were late for the party, also” when the host admitted that he had not seen the potential of this Indiana Pacers Team at the start of the season at Christmas when they had less than 0,500.

He even brought his first Puma Signature shoe – released earlier during the day – on the podium with him and joked the way the kicks were the “secret sauce” to his penchant for hitting big blows at such a high pace.

This season, he struck an amazing shot or winner of 13 for 15 in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime – the best percentage of goals on the field in a single season since the game game in 1996-1997, according to ESPN Research.

But for those who know Haliburton best, this superstar jump has been in the making. And it started inauently, a random Saturday at the end of January in Philadelphia.

Haliburton didn’t know It was at the time, but he was in his last weeks with the Sacramento Kings.

What he knew was that something was missing from his game. Or maybe a lot. Because it only made an average of 13.8 points per match that year, and these are not the kind of figures that a young online player for a maximum contract extension during the summer is putting in place.

His agent Dave Spahn contacted the famous skills trainer in NBA Drew Hanlen to see if he would meet his client and plan to work with him. Hanlen agreed to meet but immediately put conditions on the professional relationship.

In his book, “Stop (Bulls — ting) yourself”, Hanlen wrote: “The greatest thing that holds (Haliburton) was his lack of aggressiveness. So I presented him a challenge. I told him that if he wanted to work with me, he must have 14 attempts on the field on the next evening against the Sixers.”

Haliburton remembers this dinner.

“He told me that I had to believe in me before I believe in me,” said Haliburton after match 1 Thursday evening.

With the knowledge of him, Hanlen has been studying his cassette for several weeks, because he also worked in close collaboration with Philadelphia Joel EmbiidAnd the Sixers had engaged in commercial discussions with the kings on a business that would have involved Haliburton and Ben Simmons.

Hanlen loved Haliburton’s temporary ability, but feared that his lack of aggression in the score would limit the impact of his brilliant death. Embiid encouraged Hanlen to continue studying the film, because Haliburton had certain aspects of his game that the great man had never seen before.

So, in this match on January 29, 2022, Haliburton did exactly what Hanlen challenged him to do. He tried 19 shots, did 11 and finished with a summit of 38 points of the time.

He was exchanged at the Pacers 10 days later.

He has been working with Hanlen since, and the theme has never changed.

“The great quote that we always say is:” sometimes being too disinterested is in fact selfish “,” said Hanlen on Thursday evening, while waiting for Haliburton near the family room of the Pacers in Oklahoma City. “When he is disinterested, this has a negative impact on the success of his teammates and has a negative impact on the success of his team.

“The more aggressive he is, the more his team wins.”

Confidence was An inconsistent flame for Haliburton over the years – difficult to imagine after his interviews and noisy celebrations on the field this season. But just a few months ago, he was as low as Hanlen had ever seen him.

Being the only player on the Olympic team who had no playing time rocked him. The same goes for an injury to the persistent hamstrings, which prevented him from training all summer. He entered the season without his usual brilliance, physically or emotionally. And it was shown in the slow start of the Pacers.

This is what made his comments to Van Pelt after the victory of Thursday evening so ironic. “We were also late at the party”, reads a lot differently knowing how Haliburton had trouble recovering his confidence and aggressiveness earlier this year.

Even the signature shoes he brought to the podium with him have a double meaning. When Haliburton was at his lowest this year, he feared that he would not deserve to have the honor of a signature shoe.

“He has always used negativity and doubt to feed it,” said Hanlen. “But then he started to buy it and believe it. We had to go beyond it.”

Wednesday, Haliburton sent Hanlen a post from @ studio7inbox – an X account with 269 subscribers – which broke the pacers by shot by Haliburton.

https://twitter.com/Studio7Inbox/status/1930280232608583870?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Hanlen did not know how Haliburton found this post, but it was happy that it was what Haliburton thought on the eve of his first appearance in the final.

“We found a slogan, which is The orange thing“Said Hanlen.” Which just means looking at the orange thing. Look at the edge as much as possible.

“You would not tell some players to be too aggressive because you think they will start hunting bad shots. But for Ty, we hope that if he gets down and gets to the right place, he will make the right decision.”

The end result of all this is that, even if it seems that Haliburton has a superstar turn in these qualifying series, it was the one that started three years ago – and the one who still needs to take care.

After Haliburton only fired seven times in the defeat of the Pacers match 5 against the Knicks, Hanlen flew to Indianapolis to help him prepare for match 6. They watched the film, and when Haliburton went to bed, Hanlen gathered any orange thing he could find in the house and left them in front of his door.

He found a bag of red fish, a giant reese puffs cereal box, a number 3 basketball, a giant carrot, a Guitttard dark chocolate bag and friendly peanut butter groups.

Haliburton woke up and had to pass on all the “orange things” just to leave his room.

“That’s all he’s talking about,” joked Haliburton. “24/7, all day every day. It never stops with this guy.”

Obviously, the message passes. Because Haliburton came out of the Paycc Center on Thursday evening, he asked how many shooting attempts he won in match 1.

Thirteen.

“Damn,” he said. “(Hanlen) is not going to be happy. I know I was terrible. I did it and everything, but there is a lot of room for improvement. I can be better.”