• 印第安纳步行者队（Indiana Pacers）25岁的首发控球后卫泰瑞斯·哈利伯顿即将迎来他的高光时刻。尽管俄克拉荷马城雷霆队（Oklahoma City Thunder）拥有本赛季NBA最佳战绩，其球星谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大也荣膺联盟MVP，但在哈利伯顿及其步行者队的阻击下，雷霆队在NBA总决赛中距离被淘汰仅差两场失利。在今年同行匿名调查中被票选为“最被高估球员”的哈利伯顿，正在铸就自己的传奇地位。
泰瑞斯·哈利伯顿早已习惯被忽视。尽管他曾带领球队夺得州冠军，并在2018年当选威斯康星州年度最佳球员，但在高中毕业时，他并非顶级新秀。2022年，他被大学毕业后选中他的萨克拉门托国王队（Sacramento Kings）交易离队。他入选了2024年巴黎奥运会美国队名单，但几乎没获得上场机会。他的投篮姿势奇特。而体育媒体《The Athletic》进行的NBA球员匿名调查更是将他评为联盟“最被高估的”球员。
但在2025年NBA季后赛中，哈利伯顿的表现无可辩驳。他屡次贡献关键表现，并已命中四记制胜球——季后赛每轮各一记，包括目前仍在进行的总决赛。他帮助印第安纳步行者队距离捧起拉里·奥布莱恩冠军奖杯仅差两场胜利。步行者队目前以2-1领先于本赛季的夺冠大热门俄克拉荷马城雷霆队。雷霆队拥有本赛季联盟最佳战绩，球队领袖谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大是NBA现任MVP。
2023年，哈利伯顿与步行者队签下了一份2.6亿美元的五年合约，其中约2.446亿美元为全额保障合同。对他而言，2025年NBA季后赛是他的成名舞台。但走到这一步并非易事。
哈利伯顿出生于一个篮球氛围浓厚的家庭：父亲约翰曾是篮球教练和裁判，母亲布伦达也曾是篮球教练。在威斯康星州奥什科什北区高中读高二时，哈利伯顿当选福克斯谷协会（Fox Valley Association）年度最佳球员。高三那年，他包揽多项大奖，包括威斯康星州佳得乐（Gatorade）年度最佳球员，并带领球队在2018年夺得一级联赛州冠军。
然而，高中毕业时，哈利伯顿仅被视为三星级新秀（最高五星）。
大学期间，哈利伯顿是爱荷华州立大学的顶尖球员，他曾创下校史单场助攻纪录，打破了1974年创下的纪录。但手腕骨折让他大二赛季报销，并影响了他在2020年NBA选秀中的行情。受伤病影响，他在选秀中跌出前十顺位，最终在第12顺位被选中。根据NBA劳资协议（CBA），新秀的薪资与其选秀顺位直接挂钩；即使顺位仅提高几位，也可能为哈利伯顿的新秀合同带来数百万美元的差额，这对职业生涯初期的球员来说意义重大。
在NBA新秀赛季，哈利伯顿在年度最佳新秀评选中位列第三，并入选NBA最佳新秀阵容一阵，但因膝伤缺席了赛季末段比赛。对哈利伯顿更不利的是，萨克拉门托国王队早已选定他人作为他们的明星控卫，于2020年与达龙·福克斯续签五年长约。次年，国王队在2021年NBA选秀中又选中戴维恩·米切尔作为另一控卫。（截至2024-25赛季，福克斯和米切尔恰好都已效力其他球队：福克斯在圣安东尼奥马刺队（San Antonio Spurs），米切尔在迈阿密热火队（Miami Heat）。）
由于当时队中控卫过剩，国王队决定与哈利伯顿分道扬镳，于2022年2月将他交易至印第安纳步行者队。
哈利伯顿在新东家开局强势，于2023年首次入选全明星，与球队签下五年最高价值2.6亿美元的丰厚续约合同，并代表美国男篮参加了2023年国际篮联（FIBA）篮球世界杯。但那次世界杯之旅最终令人失望，美国队仅获得第四名。
哈利伯顿在2024年接受《印第安纳波利斯星报》采访时表示：“我们在一起集训了40天，而我最终空手而归。”
去年，在连续数周打出高光表现后（包括成为NBA历史上第五位单场至少得到30分、15助攻且0失误的球员），哈利伯顿首次成为全明星首发。但在东部决赛对阵波士顿凯尔特人队（Boston Celtics）的系列赛中，他遭遇肌腱受伤，赛季报销；他所在的步行者队也被最终夺冠的凯尔特人队横扫。哈利伯顿也入选了代表美国队参加巴黎奥运会的阵容，但他在所有队员中出场时间最少，三场比赛总计仅出战26分钟，这使他成为网络笑柄（尽管他也试图用自嘲式幽默参与其中）。在接受ESPN采访时，哈利伯顿坦言奥运会上枯坐板凳席的经历让他心理健康受挫，他称之为一次“自尊心的打击”。
然而，在那个令哈利伯顿不堪回首的夏天仅仅过去一年之后，他即将迎来一个载入史册的夏天，他的表现将在未来多年内铭刻于众多球迷的记忆当中。在2025年NBA季后赛中，哈利伯顿已投中五记扳平或反超比分的进球，数量仅次于勒布朗·詹姆斯的八记关键球，位居联盟历史第二。尤为值得一提的是，他在季后赛至今已命中四记制胜球，每一轮各一记。对于哈利伯顿和步行者队来说，这堪称“灰姑娘式”的逆袭。步行者队本赛季仅有一名全明星球员（不是哈利伯顿，而是帕斯卡尔·西亚卡姆），在东部排名第四，全联盟整体战绩仅列第六。而他们目前在NBA总决赛中以2-1领先的对手俄克拉荷马城雷霆队，在常规赛中比哈利伯顿的步行者队多赢了18场。
然而，尽管哈利伯顿多年来历经坎坷与失意，尽管在今年NBA同行的匿名调查中被冠以“最被高估的”球员之名，但凭借在当下NBA季后赛中的强势反弹和一记记制胜球，哈利伯顿对他的质疑者们只有一句话回应：“这叫被高估吗？”（财富中文网）
译者：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
• Tyrese Haliburton, the 25-year-old starting point guard for the Indiana Pacers, is having a moment. While the Oklahoma City Thunder had the best record in the NBA this year, and their star player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was named league MVP, they are two games away from elimination in the NBA Finals courtesy of Haliburton and his Pacers. Haliburton, who was voted “most overrated” in an anonymous survey of his peers this year, is cementing his legend status.
Tyrese Haliburton is used to being overlooked. He wasn’t a blue-chip prospect coming out of high school, despite leading his team to a state championship and being named Wisconsin Player of the Year in 2018. He was traded away by the team that drafted him out of college, the Sacramento Kings, in 2022. He made the roster for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, but barely saw the court. He has an odd-looking shot. And an anonymous survey of NBA players conducted by The Athletic named him the league’s “most overrated” player.
But in the 2025 NBA Playoffs, there’s no denying Haliburton, who has made numerous clutch plays and four game-winning shots—one in each round of the playoffs, including the still-ongoing NBA Finals—has helped bring his Indiana Pacers just two games away from lifting the Larry O’Brien trophy. The Pacers currently hold a 2–1 lead against the favorite to win it all this year, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who had the best record in the league this year, with their leader, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s reigning MVP.
For Haliburton—who signed a five-year deal with the Pacers in 2023 worth up to $260 million, with approximately $244.6 million fully guaranteed—the 2025 NBA Playoffs have been his coming-out party. But it wasn’t easy getting there.
Haliburton was born to two basketball-minded parents: His father, John, was a basketball coach and referee, and his mother, Brenda, was also a basketball coach. As a high school sophomore at Oshkosh North in Wisconsin, Haliburton was named the Fox Valley Association Player of the Year. As a senior, he won numerous awards including the Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year, leading his team to a Division I state championship in 2018.
Yet Haliburton was only considered a three-star recruit (out of five stars) coming out of high school.
In college, Haliburton was a top performer for Iowa State—recording the most assists ever by an Iowa State player in a single game, beating the previous record set in 1974—but a wrist fracture derailed his sophomore year, which affected his status in the 2020 NBA Draft. He fell out of the top 10 as a result of his injury, landing in the No. 12 spot. As a result of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), rookies can make significantly more money based on their draft status; even being drafted just a few spots higher could have landed Haliburton millions more in his rookie contract, a meaningful amount for someone early in their career.
During his first year in the NBA, Haliburton finished third in Rookie of the Year voting and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, but missed the last leg of the season because of a knee injury. And unfortunately for Haliburton, the Sacramento Kings had a different person in mind to be their star point guard, signing De’Aaron Fox to a five-year extension in 2020. The next year, the Kings selected another point guard in the 2021 NBA Draft: Davion Mitchell. (As of the 2024–25 season, both Fox and Mitchell are now coincidentally on different teams: Fox is on the San Antonio Spurs, and Mitchell is on the Miami Heat.)
With one too many point guards on their roster at the time, the Kings decided to part ways with Haliburton, trading him to the Indiana Pacers in February 2022.
Haliburton got off to a strong start with his new team, becoming an All-Star for the first time in 2023, signing a lucrative contract extension with the team worth up to $260 million over five years, and representing the U.S. Men’s National Team at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. But that run in the FIBA World Cup was ultimately disappointing, and his team finished in fourth place.
“We spent like a month, 40 days together, and I left with nothing,” Haliburton told the Indianapolis Star in 2024.
Last year, Haliburton became an All-Star starter for the first time after weeks of stellar play, including becoming only the fifth player in NBA history to record more than 30 points, 15 assists, and zero turnovers in a single game. But in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics, he suffered a hamstring injury and missed the rest of the season; his Pacers also got swept by the Celtics, the eventual NBA Champions. Haliburton was also selected to represent the U.S. in the Paris Olympics, but played the fewest minutes among any player on the roster, notching only 26 minutes across three games, making him the butt of many jokes online (though he also tried to get in on the action himself with some self-deprecating humor). In an interview with ESPN, Haliburton said he struggled with his mental health after being stuck on the bench during the Olympics, which he called an “ego check.”
But just one year after Haliburton’s summer to forget, he’s now having a summer for the ages—one that will be ingrained in the minds of many fans for years to come. In the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Haliburton has scored five game-tying or go-ahead shots—the most in league history after LeBron James, with eight—and notably hit four game-winning shots in the postseason so far, one in each round. It’s a Cinderella story for Haliburton and the Pacers, who only have one All-Star on the team this year (not Haliburton, but Pascal Siakam), and finished fourth in the Eastern Conference and only had the sixth-best record in the league overall. The team they’re currently facing—and beating, two games to one—in the NBA Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder, won 18 more games in the regular season compared with Haliburton’s Pacers.
Yet despite Haliburton’s shortcomings and disappointments over the years, and despite being named “most overrated” player in an anonymous survey of his NBA peers this year, Haliburton has two words for his doubters after his comebacks and game winners in the current NBA postseason: “Overrate THAT.”