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The career of Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton is on a rapid ascent. His stock as a player is at an all-time high after leading the Pacers all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, and then he proceeded to have himself an exceptional summer, being a part of the 12-man Team USA roster that won gold during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
However, Haliburton wasn't always this successful. Thus, he's not letting everything he accomplished this past season to get to his head. In fact, a question hurled at him last year during the 2023 FIBA World Cup by Team USA coach/director of scouting Jeff Van Gundy continues to reverberate in his head, and he's still using that as fuel to continue succeeding in his Pacers career.
“Van Gundy was a big part of my motivation going into this last year because with the (2023 FIBA) World Cup team, he just kept challenging me. Like, ‘Why haven’t you won yet?’ And I could come up with all of these excuses as to why I haven’t won, but the fact of the matter was I hadn’t won. So all I could think about all year was how much Van Gundy pissed me off,” Haliburton shared in an interview with James Boyd of The Athletic.
To be fair to Haliburton and the Pacers, it's not as if he's feeling immense pressure to already deliver a championship for his team. He only has two seasons of experience as the Pacers' lead guy, and throughout his stint in Indianapolis, the team has improved dramatically.
The 2022-23 season, of course, was a disappointment for the Pacers. Haliburton's injury doomed their playoff hopes in 2023, and they were still in the middle of retooling their roster after bottoming out in 2022.
But while Haliburton has taken Van Gundy's question to heart, he expressed his gratefulness towards the veteran coach for keeping it real and for lighting a fire underneath him that is impossible to extinguish.
“But it was real, though, and that’s why I love JVG. That was a real challenge that he had for me. (It’s) why I’m thankful for that guy and why we have a great relationship,” Haliburton added.
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Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers continue on in their ascent
Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers may have had themselves a successful 2023-24 season, but they know that they have not achieved anything yet in the league. Sure, making it to the Eastern Conference Finals is a commendable accomplishment, but rarely, if ever, are runners-up ever remembered in the annals of NBA history.
The makings are there for the Pacers to become more than just a footnote in the playoff run of the eventual champion. They are building something sustainable in Indianapolis, and Haliburton certainly has the talent and the drive to be the best player on a championship-winning team.
It's Haliburton's unselfishness and ability to take over when required that makes him suited to take on a lead role for the Pacers. But Haliburton need not do it by his lonesome. The Pacers have assembled a stacked roster, with NBA champion Pascal Siakam leading the team's cast of talented role players across multiple positions.
The Eastern Conference may be loaded at the top, but the Pacers have built for themselves the requisite confidence level that could take them over the hump.
