Here’s a previously unbelievable sentence that became increasingly credible in the past 18 months: The Indiana Pacers will play in the NBA Finals for just the second time ever — and Tyrese Haliburton is the biggest reason why.
Though Pacers teammate Pascal Siakam surprisingly won the Eastern Conference MVP award, Haliburton was responsible for the most memorable performances and moments against the Knicks. His iconic shot (and insta-meme reaction) in Game 1 will be included in NBA playoff hype videos for the next generation. Then there’s Haliburton’s Game 4 ECF masterpiece: 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds, four steals and zero turnovers.
Haliburton is the only player to ever log a stat line that gaudy in NBA history. And to do it in an Eastern Conference final against a better-seeded team? Legendary performance.
Not bad for a guy who once stressed about being forced to sit out a year at Iowa State.
While Haliburton showed glimpses of being really good at ISU from 2018-20, he was obviously not remotely projected to be what he’s become (a strong case as a top-10 NBA player in light of pushing the Pacers into the Finals). Haliburton’s averaging 18.8 points, 9.8 assists and 5.7 rebounds in the 2025 playoffs — all improvements on his 2024-25 season averages.
Ever since Haliburton’s emergence in the early portions of the 2023-24 season, when unsuspecting Indiana made a run to the In-Season Tournament championship game against the Lakers, his star-rise was viewed as a stunner. And on some level, it definitely has been. But college hoops ball-knowers will remember the skinny scorer as an efficiency monster in his two seasons at Iowa State. Haliburton’s taken what he did as a Cyclone and spun it into a mutant superpower as a pro.
Haliburton was an efficiency monster at Iowa State for almost two seasons.
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