What Makes a Star?

When it comes to evaluating talent in the NBA, I've had somewhat of a vendetta against the way we cover stars in the league, especially in the last 2 - 3 years. For seemingly arbitrary reasons, certain players' flaws, on and off the court, are overlooked, while others are treated like outsiders by the greater fandom and, by extension, underrated for their play on the court. Continuing to add to the pot of negativity by disparaging players is far less meaningful (Especially in the current hostile NBA media environment) than uplifting players who I feel are underappreciated for what they bring to this sport and denied their proper flowers. I want to start a series, primarily focused on covering these players at every tier of the NBA, from the superstars and standouts to the glue guys and role players. An exemplary case of this is one of the main highlights from this year's playoffs, the engine of the Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton.

Just before the 2025 season began, I did regular-season predictions with some friends. I had said then that I felt the Pacers were a 4th to 5th seeded team, just due to Haliburton's continued growth as a player. Even before last year, I was invested in Haliburton, starting around the early days in Sacramento. The "Playmaking-Sharpshooter" archetype was one I was always somewhat captivated by, just due to how deadly the combination of elite playmaking and shot creation can be in tandem. It is also the playstyle I always wanted to imitate in those childhood daydreaming "If I were in the league" moments you have. I've felt vindicated in my opinion, not only on the playstyle, but on Haliburton himself, after watching the Pacers the last 2 years, with them being the 2nd best offensive team by rating during the 2024 regular season, along with being 1st in the playoffs, and, despite being ranked 9th in the 2025 regular season, being the 2nd ranked offensive team during the playoffs. Compounding this, a stat has floated around the NBA diaspora this year: The Pacers have a 25-3 record in the regular season and a 4-0 record in the playoffs when Haliburton scores just 20 points. This stat is where the headline derives from, because evaluating a player like Haliburton requires redefining what a star can look like.

I am not attempting to push a hot take and put Haliburton in top 5 conversations or anything of the sort, but I do want to give Haliburton proper credit for what he has done this year. Initially, I wanted this piece to be done before the Eastern Conference finals began, but after the two games played up until this point, I am so glad I didn't release this. Game 2 was, of course, the Pascal Siakam game, but game 1 was Haliburton's magnum opus, the pinnacle of his game up until this point in his career, in my opinion.

We've seen so much coverage of his recreation of Reggie Miller's choking taunt that it almost makes you forget how we got to that point. Aaron Nesmith apparently had demonic powers for the last 2:50 of regulation, hitting 6 straight threes to bring a game that I thought was done back to a point of true uncertainty. Even before this shot, Haliburton had 27 points and was shooting ~50% from the field, along with dropping in 9 assists. This was already one of Haliburton's best playoff games, which was just sweetened by the step-back two to send it to OT. The shot wasn't clean either. We are talking about no timeouts, 7.3 seconds left, running the full length of the court, nearly getting stripped by Mikal Bridges, back-pedaling, and putting up a long two over 7'0" Mitchell Robinson. Despite the circumstances, when his team NEEDED a basket, Haliburton delivered.

Haliburton had a relatively quiet overtime after this point, but I would like to point out how effortless the offense still looked. A key moment was Haliburton's one-handed pass to Nemhard on the cut. Something about this possession felt weightless, even in such an intense game, but that is what we expect elite floor generals to do: create easy offense. There are also the little things that shift the tides and flow of a game, such as Haliburton's denial of the inbound, giving the Pacers just enough time to challenge and reverse the out-of-bounds call on Nemhard. Overall, Haliburton ended the game tying his 2025 playoff high of 31, with this being his 3rd highest playoff scoring total thus far. This is all without mentioning the two games I intended to be Exhibit A and B, those being Hali's Game 5 versus the Cavaliers and his Game 5 versus the Bucks.

Against the Cavaliers, Haliburton had a 31-point, 6-rebound, 8-assist close-out game. Not only did he drop his 2025 playoff high, he did it on 66% from the field and 60% from three, with only 6 free throws. Real ethical hoops. In the first round matchup versus the Bucks, it was more of the same. 26 points and a game winner, to go along with 5 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. Two more games where his team NEEDED a big performance to close out. Hali showed up and showed out, just as we expect from our stars.

Big games like these are the defining moments of players. Just a few are enough to elevate one into the pantheon of greats, leaving us reminiscing decades from now. In a single playoffs, Haliburton has generated more of these moments than some Hall of Fame, legendary, idolized players have for their entire career. For Haliburton, however, it isn't just these moments that stick out; it is also his willingness to sacrifice his personal glory for team success. The Pacers are a team predicated on this top-down commitment to unselfish, team-oriented play.

The Pacers have been an outlier thus far, playing at least 11 players in 10 out of 12 playoff games. It's not uncommon for teams to shrink their lineups to 7 - 8 man rotations come playoff time, so why don't the Pacers? Herein lies the uniqueness of their scheme, a quark only possible through buy-in and sacrifice from the team's best. The Pacers have the ability to wear teams down through sheer numbers. Almost no other NBA roster has 10 reliable playoff-caliber pieces they can turn to. Your best 5 might beat the Pacers' lineups, but what about in the 3rd and 4th quarter? What if your best 5 have had to chase Haliburton and Siakam for an entire game while also respecting the shot of 3 other players, and now an entirely new, fresh, and properly capable group of guys is on the court? As we've seen through the regular season and now the playoffs, most teams simply cannot handle the versatility and depth in lineups this team presents.

I appreciate every player on this roster for their adherence to the system, but not every player has the same criticism cast upon them when their stats don't line up with their perception, as is prevalent on teams that play less heliocentric ball. Not that I am criticizing him for it, as, on the whole, I think the scrutiny we give players is largely unfair, but even someone like Siakam, on the exact same team, is not scrutinized in the way Haliburton is when he falls short. Within this is another hallmark of star players: expectations.

Haliburton has a near-impossible standing within the greater NBA world. He garners similar expectations to those placed on his contemporaries, while simultaneously not being viewed as good enough to even achieve these goals. Take the now well-known poll for The Athletic, where Haliburton was voted the most overrated player in the league by 13 other NBA players, or Tim Hardaway Sr, who said this on Gilbert Arena's podcast:

I wanna go back and bust his motherf***ing a**. ... He thinks he all that.

For whatever reason, the NBA community, not even just the fans, has a disdain for Haliburton. If we go further back, he was even hated on for his inclusion in last year's Olympic team, with fans taking brief intermissions from hating on Jayson Tatum to instead, of course, hate on Haliburton. Despite the negativity, this is one way in which Haliburton definitively fits the mold of a star in this league. Hate tends to scale relatively with athletes; the better you are, the more hate you tend to receive as an extension of the expectations now placed upon you. There are outliers, of course, but when discussing players on this tier at least, people tend to hate you purely as a result of how good they perceive you to be, whether consciously or unconsciously. No one, regardless of whether you have a bad game or not, is going to get your name trending on Twitter if you are the 13th man on the bench (unless you miss a game-winning shot). If you are a star, breathing incorrectly will result in adverse reactions. Considering Haliburton has clearly reached this point in his career, if we are going off of public perception, Haliburton certainly is treated like a textbook star.

Regardless, it's important to remember that things weren't meant to pan out like this by any stretch of the imagination. By Haliburton's own admission, he was hurt initially after the Kings-Pacers trade in 2022, per Sports Illustrated:

Me, Buddy, and Tristan, we got traded together and I was distraught on that plane ride [because] I was still in shock and pissed and all that stuff.

His player's tribune piece detailed this even more, from the emotions to the surreality of the entire situation. In what felt like a split second, his entire perception of himself as a player changed. From wanting to be the "next C-Webb for [Sacramento]," to being entirely unsure of what the future would hold.

And yet, he persevered.

At the time, the discussion was whether the Kings should build around De'Aaron Fox or Haliburton long-term at the point guard position. Unfortunately for Hali, and yet fortunate for his future, he was sent to the Pacers, along with Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson, in exchange for Domantas Sabonis, Jeremy Lamb, and Justin Holiday. We had seen flashes of his potential, but nothing that would hint at him being the engine for the Pacers en route to deep playoff runs. The East was dominated by Giannis' Bucks, Embiid's 6ers, the Jimmy Butler era Heat, and a younger, Porzingis-less version of this year's Celtics. How would a team like the Pacers rebuild and compete? For Haliburton, a frame of mind shift would be necessary to adjust to his new life, now playing only 5 hours away from home.

It's not going to be about just playing close to home. It’s going to be about winning.

Seasons like his 2025 campaign were always the goal. He knew from the beginning that a lot was riding on him. Being the centerpiece in a trade for an all-star caliber player means you can't fall flat; you are expected to come in and perform. It is hard to say he has done anything but that. Through all of the trials and tribulations that the last few seasons have brought, he's been a remarkably outstanding performer when the lights were the absolute brightest, and he did it with a smile the entire time.

There is still a long, arduous road to officially cementing himself and this year's Pacers squad in the NBA's book of champions, yet no matter what happens in the ECF or potentially the finals, I'll still be a Haliburton truther.

Thanks for reading, friends.