Move Over Kevin Durant, Because Stephen A Smith Has Found His Next Target And His Name Is Tyrese Haliburton

Maddie Meyer. Getty Images.

For playing in his first ever NBA Finals, Tyrese Haliburton is having a pretty damn solid debut by pretty much every metric (outside of TOs). His overall numbers of 17.7/7.3/7.7 on 51/39% splits are solid, and fairly impressive when you remember he's going up against a defensive juggernaut with some of the best perimeter defenders on planet Earth. 

In the 4th quarter of these Finals, when it's time to win the game, Haliburton is averaging 6.3 points on 57/50% splits and is a +9 in his minutes. Just to help put that in perspective, SGA is averaging 6.7 points on 50/0% splits and is a -8.3 in his 4th quarter minutes.

When it came time to make a big shot? Haliburton delivered. When it came time to make plays last night down the stretch to seal a huge win, Haliburton delivered. Sure, he kind of stunk in Game 2, but that shit happens to everyone! I wouldn't say SGA's Game 3 was anything to write about. Where was Chet/JDub in Game 1? The Finals are hard! 

As I blogged earlier in the Pacers' playoff run, for whatever reaso,n people (and mostly the media) cannot stop being weird when it comes to Haliburton. Despite what he's doing on the floor, that seems to be ignored in favor of some bizarre narrative that Haliburton actually isn't as good as the player we're seeing in these playoffs. I find it to be interesting how that narrative follows some players and not others, but oh well. 

The loudest media voice when it comes to being weird about Haliburton is of course, Stephen A Smith. When Haliburton and the Pacers were playing his Knicks, he was quick to be very vocal about how Jalen Brunson was a superstar and blah blah blah, but Haliburton wasn't. Despite the exact reasoning he used for Brunson to also be true for Haliburton, in addition to the reality that Haliburton outplayed Brunson down the stretch of that series. 

After of Game 3, Haliburton was asked about the basketball media and all the narratives that seem to take precedence over the actual product, and he could not have given a better answer 

I mean, Haliburton not only cooked with that quote, he's also 1000% right on the money. The basketball discourse from their media is one of the NBA's biggest problems. It's horrendous, and everyone can see it. All the talk from those people is how Haliburton needs to "be more aggressive" and turn into this volume shooter/scorer in order to be a "superstar". Says who? I'd say Haliburton is doing a pretty damn good job by simply staying true to who he is as a player. Not everyone is going to be a 30 FGA shot chucker. That's not who Haliburton is as a player, and it's not how the Pacers play as a team. 

It's not a stretch to think Haliburton was referencing the commentary that came via Stephen A after his down game, and if you thought Stephen A was going to miss an opportunity to insert himself into some drama, you haven't been paying attention for the last like 10+ years

I'm not sure about anyone else, but this immediately made me think to his famous callout of KD, when he declared that Durant "didn't want to make an enemy out of me"

Same exact energy, just 9 years later. 

In all honesty, that Stephen A clip is everything that's wrong about the NBA media discourse. There are 100000000000000 things you could talk about when it comes to Haliburton and his Game 3, and instead, you have Stephen A basically calling out the player? What's even more troubling is Adam Silver doesn't even understand that this is an issue

I think we all know where this goes right? If Haliburton has a down game at any point for the rest of these Finals and the Pacers lose a game, Stephen A is going to victory lap like you read about. If he doesn't and the Pacers win, he'll still refuse to give him his ample credit. Mix in a couple of media tour stops to talk about this "beef" just like he did with the whole LeBron James fiasco and around and around we'll go.