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Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, left, celebrates along with forward Pascal Siakam after scoring during the second half in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference semifinal NBA basketball playoff against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)AP
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Tyrese Haliburton delivered a historic playoff performance in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals that should permanently silence those anonymous “most overrated” votes from his NBA peers.
In the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, hosts Ethan Sands and Chris Fedor dissected the psychology behind player polling and why Haliburton became such a contentious figure among his colleagues.
The Indiana Pacers guard’s playoff masterpiece against the New York Knicks left jaws dropped across the basketball world.
As Sands highlighted, “Tyrese Haliburton went off 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds, five triples, four steals, and maybe most impressively, zero turnovers. The only game with 30 points and 15 rebounds with zero turnovers in playoff history.”
It was a resounding statement against those who voted him “most overrated” in anonymous player polls earlier this season. So what’s behind that label?
According to Fedor, it’s a complex cocktail of emotions that have little to do with Haliburton’s actual basketball abilities.
“I think players are jealous. I do. I think them making him the quote, unquote, most overrated player voting for him that way. I think it was a combination of lunacy. I think it was a combination of jealousy, and I think it was a combination of just hate,” Fedor explained on the podcast.
The “overrated” tag seems particularly misplaced when you consider that NBA coaches have always recognized Haliburton’s elite playmaking abilities.
Coaches understand “the way that he can manipulate the game” and “the way that he can control and dictate pace,” as Fedor points out. They’re the ones staying up late devising defensive schemes to contain him — hardly the treatment reserved for an overrated player.
What makes Haliburton such a lightning rod for criticism from his peers? His playing style and personality appear to be significant factors.
“I think he’s an easy guy to dislike because he is mouthy, because he does gesticulate, because he can get under your skin with some of the things that he does,” Fedor observed. “And he has like a flamboyance to him. He has a flair to him, and it makes him an easy target.”
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This dynamic isn’t unique to Haliburton.
Throughout NBA history, players with distinctive personalities and playing styles have often faced heightened scrutiny from their peers. From Allen Iverson to Russell Westbrook to Trae Young, players who challenge conventional approaches to the game frequently become targets for criticism, regardless of their statistical production or impact on winning.
The anonymous nature of these player polls also creates an environment where snap judgments and personal biases can run unchecked.
Fedor provided fascinating behind-the-scenes insight into how these polls are conducted, noting that players are sometimes caught off-guard by questions and may simply echo names they’ve heard mentioned by others.
“Sometimes these players are caught off guard that they say, I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for it,” Fedor explained. “And at that point, the writer does what, you know, he should be doing, and he says, well, you know, some of the other guys have said Tyrese Halliburton... What about one of those guys?”
While players may have their reasons for disliking Haliburton’s style, his playoff performances have rendered the “overrated” label absurd. Leading the Pacers to the brink of the NBA Finals while posting historic numbers isn’t the work of an overrated player—it’s the mark of someone ascending to superstardom.
As Haliburton continues to silence critics with his play, these anonymous polls serve as a reminder that peer evaluation in professional sports often reveals more about the evaluators than about the subject being evaluated.
Here’s the podcast for this week:
Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Cleveland Wine and Gold Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.