All-Star MVP Damian Lillard Shakes Off Angry Indiana Crowd After Tyrese Haliburton’s Snub

Damian Lillard lifted the Kobe Bryant trophy above his head amid loud boos. The East went on to decimate the West with a blow-out 211-186 win. The Milwaukee Bucks guard played the anchor role, dropping 39 points with 11 three-pointers, winning the MVP trophy. However, he didn’t have a pleasant reception from the Indianapolis crowd.

Ernie Johnson pointed out the rousing boos and the home crowd’s disappointment for not naming Tyrese Haliburton as the MVP, during his interview with Dame. In response, Lillard humbly said, “I expected it, we are in his home town, we are in his building, he had a great game.” The Indiana Pacers star also had an impressive game, dropping 32 points.

Importantly, the boos didn’t dull the 8x NBA All-Star. He went on to take that up his chin. And he also proceeded to express his thoughts on winning the trophy. He said, “You wanna have this experience. You wanna be an All-Star game MVP… It’s an honor, playing against the best and be able to come out with this is a special accomplishment.” 

On the other hand, Tyrese Haliburton seemed like an ideal candidate for the MVP trophy. The 23-year-old started off the game with a bang for the East. He dropped five three-pointers in the first four minutes. The Pacers star didn’t stop at that. He went on, shooting from the arc, and by the end of the first half, he dropped 7 from his nine attempts.

Apart from that, he was also involved in creating history tonight, by dropping a three-pointer to become a first ever team to reach 200 points in an All-Star game.

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With all these accomplishment under his name, he still went on to miss the MVP award. Let’s take a closer look at the decision.

Was Tyrese Haliburton snubbed?

Even though Damian Lillard scored 7 points more than Haliburton, it was the Pacers’ star who brought the audience alive in the game with his explosive performance. In terms of field goal, the Bucks star dropped 11 three-pointers from 23 attempts, whereas Haliburton dropped 10 in his 14 attempts.

Generally, the MVP decision doesn’t go against the popular stance, however, on tonight’s occasion, it went against the home crowd’s choice. The jury put out a close result where Lillard received 12 votes and while host city hero got 5 votes.

Leaving this aside, Dame became only the second player after Michael Jordan to win an event on Saturday along with All-Star MVP.

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What do you make of the Indiana crowd’s reaction to Damian Lillard’s MVP award? Let us know in the comments below.