Halliburton s super-giant path began three years ago: How the trainer inspired him to play aggressively
Translator's note: This article was originally published from ESPN, and the author is Ramona Shelburne. The data in the article are as of the original article as of June 6th local time. The views in the article have nothing to do with the translator and the platform.
For most NBA fans, whether it's an occasional attention or avid fan, Tyres Halliburton's leap to the superstar level seems to have happened in the past few weeks.
There was a legendary moment where he paid tribute to Reggie Miller in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden; there was a nearly perfect performance in the fourth game against the Knicks - 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds, 5 steals and zero turnovers; of course, there was also the last 0.3 seconds of the first game of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who made the final shot, helping the team narrowly defeat their opponents 111-110, thus putting the most noisy home court in the league on Thursday night. After the game, Halliburton showed a charming charm that only top superstars had in the interview. When ESPN reporter Scott Van Pert admitted that he could not see the team's potential early when the Pacers' winning rate was less than 50% during Christmas, Halliburton joked with him: "Actually, we almost missed the party." He even brought the first personal signature puma shoe that was just released earlier that day to the podium of the press conference, and joked that the shoes were the "secret weapon" for him to score key goals with such a high shooting rate.
According to ESPN's research data, in the fourth quarter or the last two minutes of this season, Halliburton tied or overtook the key goal, hitting 13 times in 15 shots - this hit rate is the highest in a single season since statistics began in the 1996-97 season.
However, for those who know Halliburton best, the leap to superstars has been brewing for years. And its beginning is not remarkable, and it happened on a regular late January Saturday in Philadelphia.
Halliburton didn't know at the time that his days with the Sacramento Kings had entered the final few weeks.
He only knew that there seemed to be some things missing in his game, perhaps a lot of things. Because he averaged only 13.8 points per game that season, such data is far from enough for a young player who is expected to receive a maximum salary renewal in the summer.
His agent Dave Sparn contacted the famous NBA skills trainer Drew Hanlun to ask if he would like to meet his clients and consider working with him. Hanlun agreed to meet, but immediately put forward conditions for this professional partnership.
Hanlun wrote in his book "Stop Deceiving Self": "The biggest problem that hinders (Halliburton) development is his lack of aggressiveness in scoring. So I asked him a challenge. I told him that if he wanted to work with me, he had to complete 14 shots in the next night against the Sixers."
Halliburton still remembered that dinner.
"He told me that I had to believe in myself before he believed in me," Halliburton told ESPN after his first game Thursday night. What Halliburton didn't know was that Hanlun had been studying his game video for weeks. Because Hanlun also worked closely with Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, who was discussing a deal involving Halliburton and Ben Simmons with the Kings at the time.
Hanlun admires Halliburton's passing ability, but he is worried that Halliburton's lack of aggressiveness in scoring will limit the impact of his excellent passes. Embiid encouraged Hanlun to continue studying the game video because he felt that some of the traits Halliburton showed in the game were something he had never seen in other players.
So in the game on January 29, 2022, Halliburton did exactly according to Hanlun's challenge. He made 19 shots and hit 11 goals, finally scoring a career-high 38 points at the time.
10 days later, he was traded to the Pacers.
He has been working with Hanlun since then, and the theme of cooperation has never changed.
"A famous saying we often say is: 'Sometimes it's actually a kind of selfishness.'" Hanlun told ESPN while waiting for Halliburton outside the Oklahoma City Pacers family lounge Thursday night. "When he's too selfless, it actually has a negative impact on the success of his teammates and also on the team's success. The more aggressive he is, the easier it is for the team to win."
Over the years, confidence has been like a volatile flame for Halliburton - after seeing his passionate interviews and celebrations on the court this season, it's hard to imagine that he's ever had that moment. But just a few months ago, his condition fell to a low that Hanlun had never seen before.
As the only player in the US Olympic basketball team who did not get any playing time, this hit him deeply. In addition, the ongoing hamstring injury also prevented him from training all summer. This has led to his loss of energy as he used to be physically and emotionally at the beginning of the new season. This is also reflected in the Pacers' slow start at the beginning of the season.
This also makes what he said to Van Pert after his victory on Thursday night seem particularly ironic. "We almost missed this party ourselves." After knowing how much struggle Halliburton had experienced to regain confidence and aggressiveness earlier this season, we would have a completely different understanding.
Even the signature sneakers he brought to the podium have a double meaning. When Halliburton was at its lowest point this year, he had feared that he would not deserve the honor of launching his personal signature sneakers.
"He always motivated himself with negative comments and doubts," Hanlun said, "but then he started to accept these negative voices and really believed them. We had to help him overcome that." On Wednesday, Halliburton sent Hanlun a post from a Twitter account with only 269 followers that analyzed the Pacers' winning numbers of Halliburton shots from the start of the season to the playoffs. The post reads:
The following is an analysis of Halliburton's winning situation with different shots from the beginning of the season to the playoffs -
- 9 shots or less: 5 wins and 6 losses
- 10 shots or more: 47 wins and 21 losses
- 14 shots or more: 30 wins and 13 losses
- 15 shots or more: 29 wins and 10 losses
- 16 shots or more: 20 wins and 5 losses
- 17 shots or more: 15 wins and 2 losses
- 20 shots or more: 4 wins 0 losses
Hanlun didn't know how Halliburton found this post, but he was happy that the day before Halliburton debuted in the finals, he was thinking about this.
"We came up with a slogan, 'Orange Objects,'" Hanlun said, "meaning to stare at as many orange objects as possible, that is, to stare at the basket as much as possible."
"You don't make some players too aggressive because you're worried that they will start blindly pursuing unreasonable shots. But for Halliburton, we believe that if he can hit the basket more and put himself in the right position, he will make the right decision." The end result of all this is that, although Halliburton seems to have completed the superstar transformation this time in the playoffs, the process actually started three years ago and still needs to be carefully cultivated.
Halliburton only made 7 shots in the Pacers' fifth game loss to the Knicks. Afterward, Hanlun flew to Indianapolis to help him prepare for the sixth game. They watched the game video together, and when Halliburton went to bed, Hanlun collected all the orange objects he could find in the house and placed them outside Halliburton's door.
He found a bag of goldfish cookies, a large box of cereals, a No. 3 basketball, a huge carrot, a bag of Gilder dark chocolate and a bag of Kind peanut butter sandwich candy.
Halliburton woke up and had to step over all these "orange objects" in order to get out of the room.
"He talked about this all day," Halliburton joked, "and said 24 hours a day, all the time. That man never stopped talking about this."
Apparently, this message had been conveyed to Halliburton. Because when he walked out of the Thunder home on Thursday night, he asked how many times he made the move in the first game. 13 times.
"Damn," he said, "(Hanlun) won't be happy. I know I played badly. Although I shot that key goal, there's still a lot to improve. I can do better."
