Tyrese Haliburton didn’t need to say much.
His sweatshirt said it all.
Moments after his Indiana Pacers defeated the Knicks in Game 7 of last year’s second-round playoff series, Haliburton sat down at the Madison Square Garden podium wearing a hoodie with an image of Reggie Miller’s infamous “choke” taunt.
“I’m just wearing the hoodie,” Haliburton said coyly. “I like to be comfy on the plane.”
Of course, Knicks fans got the message.
Miller made that choke sign to Knicks superfan Spike Lee during Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals as he led his Pacers to a second-half comeback.
The sharp-shooting, trash-talking Miller emerged as the ultimate Knicks killer over six playoff series against them from 1993-2000.
And Haliburton, whose Pacers are set to face the Knicks again in this year’s Eastern Conference Finals, hasn’t exactly shied away from the “heel” role, either.
“It was obviously something that he wanted to do, and the way that he played last year in the playoffs, I mean, it was fitting,” Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson said Monday.
“He played well in the Garden. Obviously, Knicks fans and Pacers fans, they go back and forth. I think he did a great job with it last year, but now we’re moving on.”
Haliburton averaged 21.3 points and 7.0 assists per game in last year’s series against the Knicks, during which he also wore a Miller T-shirt to the Indianapolis airport before Game 5.
After uneven performances in Games 1 and 5 at the Garden, Haliburton was at his best there in Game 7, scoring 14 of his 26 points in the first quarter and finishing 6-of-12 on 3-point attempts.
“He knew that we needed some special shotmaking,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said after that 130-109 win. “There were shades of Reggie Miller, running around in that first quarter.”
Much like Miller did, Haliburton carries himself with a confidence and swagger that teammates love and opposing fans can’t stand.
Asked last summer about his “villain” status, Haliburton suggested it was “a label that’s been put on me.”
“I like playing basketball,” Haliburton told Yahoo Sports in July. “I understand that people don’t want to see Indiana win anything. They don’t want to see us do well. As a small-market team, for the majority of my life, Indiana has been looked at as boring or whatever the case may be.
“I just go into games understanding it’s whoever’s in the locker room, whoever’s in that travel party, against the world.”
In an anonymous poll published last month by The Athletic, NBA players voted Haliburton as the most overrated player in the league.
But the two-time All-Star is in the midst of another strong playoff run.
Haliburton enters Wednesday night’s Game 1 against the Knicks at the Garden averaging 17.5 points and an NBA-best 9.3 assist per game this postseason.
He made a game-winning 3-pointer in the waning seconds of a Game 2 win over the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, then iced that second-round series with a Miller-esque 31 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including 6-of-10 on 3-pointers, in Game 5.
“We text every day,” Haliburton said of Miller after last year’s Game 7 against the Knicks. “He’s been a good mentor for me.”
And Pacers fans love him.
After a video of Knicks fans aggressively heckling a man wearing Haliburton jersey in New York last week went viral, Haliburton invited the fan to Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals in Indiana.
“Everybody in our organization wants to make sure you’re taken care of,” Haliburton told the fan, Hans Perez, during a video appearance on Monday’s episode of ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.” “All the team’s excited to meet you. It’s all we’ve been talking about.”
That gesture wasn’t very villain-like.
“Whatever the media puts on me is what’s put on me,” Haliburton said in that 2024 interview with Yahoo Sports. “At the end of the day, I just want to be known as a guy who gives his all.”
