Tyrese Haliburton hilariously thought he'd get East Finals MVP before Pascal Siakam's win
Tyrese Haliburton hilariously thought he'd get East Finals MVP before Pascal Siakam's win
You could've forgiven the electric Tyrese Haliburton for thinking it was his "moment" in the aftermath of the Indiana Pacers clinching their first NBA Finals berth in a quarter-century.
After all, Indiana's franchise talisman tore up the New York Knicks to the tune of a 21-point, 10.5-assist, 6-rebound, 2.5-steal average over six Eastern Conference Finals (ECF) games. Suffice it to say, Ben Stiller wasn't the only Knicks-adjacent person feeling Haliburton's wrath over the last couple of weeks.
So, when it came time to announce East Finals MVP, Haliburton understandably thought he was about to take home some individual hardware. The awkward twist for Haliburton was that Pacers teammate Pascal Siakam won the honor instead by a single vote. Of course, Siakam was a deserved winner in his own right, as the power forward and 2019 NBA champion had three games of at least 30 points during the series.
What's funny here is that you could hilariously see Haliburton positioning himself to take ECF MVP as TNT's Ernie Johnson started announcing the honor. You know what I'm talking about, where you start lightly pushing through the crowd, trying to minimize the time it takes for you to get to center stage.
We've all done it. We've all seen it.
Alas, while it wasn't meant to be for the Pacers' franchise player here, he did give us a brilliant (and awkward) moment of levity:
If there's any consolation for Haliburton, he still has a tremendous opportunity to add an even bigger individual trophy to his collection. Given his skills as a player, Haliburton will undoubtedly be one of the top favorites to capture this year's NBA Finals MVP. However, that task will be easier said than done as his Pacers will probably have to topple the heavily favored Oklahoma City Thunder because the NBA typically does not give the Finals MVP to someone on the losing team.
At any rate, it's something Haliburton can look forward to if he's brilliant in a potential Pacers' upset of the Thunder.
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