Tyrese Haliburton joined two prestigious clubs after his performance in the Indiana Pacers’ 130-121 win over the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Firstly, his stat-line put him in the company of just two other NBA players who had achieved such numbers. Secondly, he earned admission into “Club SUPERSTAR,” the exclusive 12-player group Fox Sports’ Nick Wright decides upon each season.
According to Wright, Haliburton is now peers with regular-season MVPs, NBA Finals MVPs, and perennial All-NBA first-team honorees.
Along with the Pacers’ leader, Wright’s “Club SUPERSTAR” includes the best player on each of the other remaining playoff teams: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson, and Anthony Edwards.
Haliburton also sits among veterans who have ruled the NBA for the past decade-plus: LeBron James and Stephen Curry.
“Club SUPERSTAR” also invited back two players who have each won multiple MVPs in the last seven years: Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
First-team All-NBA winners Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell are still a part of “Club SUPERSTAR” despite their teams exiting the 2025 postseason early. As is the newest Los Angeles Lakers star, Luka Doncic.
Kevin Durant was the only player in “Club SUPERSTAR” whose team did not make the postseason, but his Phoenix Suns’ teammate Devin Booker didn’t get an invitation to the club for a second straight season.
Illustration via Jack Perkins (@purehoop)
Rising stars Cade Cunningham, Victor Wembanyama and Alperen Sengun also just missed out on earning their first invitation, while Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis could not stay healthy in 2025 and lost the spots that held in 2024.
It was Embiid and Davis who made way for Mitchell and Haliburton.
Haliburton earned this distinguished achievement by consistently outperforming fellow invitees. He led the Indiana Pacers over Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in five games in the first round. He needed just five games, again, to take down Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. And now he sits one win away from beating Brunson and the New York Knicks to make his first NBA Finals appearance.
“Tyrese Haliburton is the best player in this series,” Chris Broussard said Wednesday on “First Things First”, agreeing with host Nick Wright’s opinion. “This dude is something special.”
Haliburton made his entry into “Club SUPERSTAR” undeniable with his Game 4 stat-line of 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds, without committing a single turnover. While “Club SUPERSTAR” includes 11 players other than Haliburton, only two have achieved the stat-line he posted on Tuesday: Nikola Jokic and James Harden.
The two former NBA MVPs, and Haliburton, are the only three players to post a 30-15-and-10 game with 0 turnovers, but Haliburton’s the only one to do it in the postseason.
He and the Pacers will look to close out the Knicks in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.
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