Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton has had an amazing season so far. Playing in his fifth season and he has already made it into the MVP conversation. Most recently, the star even shouldered his team to the In-season Tournament Finals. Days after the excruciating loss in the final, the 23-year-old reminisced about a Chris Paul moment from his rookie season, which gave him a wake-up call to play the rest of his career amongst the brilliant brains.
The rising star has built his reputation around his swift dribbling and shooting skills. Moreover, Haliburton’s basketball IQ has churned out an impeccable assist average of 12 in this season. Speaking of basketball IQs in a recent stream, the Pacers led into the CP3 story.
Tyrese Haliburton narrates a CP3 story
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Every star gets their ‘Welcome to the NBA moment’ and Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton received it along with a lesson. He started off his NBA journey with the Sacramento Kings and registered a decent average of 13 points with a shooting percentage of 47. Apart from his impressive stats, he ended the rookie season with a valuable lesson from Chris Paul.
Featuring on the NBA’s streaming site alongside Vince Carter and Quentin Richardson, Haliburton spoke about the transition of players from college to professional basketball. During the conversation, Haliburton revealed highly of CP3’s basketball IQ. He narrated an incident from a game between the Phoenix Suns and Kings, where Paul’s quick thinking left him in disbelief.
He said, “Suns ran a stack, they got a bucket, they got again. And CP saw we guarding it… one possession of him looking at somebody with an eye contact like this, which meant, slip the stack, they slipped the stack… I got a wide open three… I’m like, how did that happen… it’s just how smart dudes are.”
Tyrese Haliburton shares his 'welcome to the NBA' moment 🔊
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Following his stint with the Suns, Paul is currently lending his services to the Dubs, playing off the bench for the first time in his career.
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Even though Haliburton got his initial dose of lessons from CP3, he has a unique way of improving his basketball IQ.
How does Haliburton improve his basketball IQ?
While basketball is a lot about dropping buckets, a fair amount of it is achieved through basketball IQ. And, Haliburton has developed an uncanny way to achieve it, video games.
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The Pacers star who is currently chasing his second 30-point season, revealed that playing NBA 2k helped him read the game better. During an interview with Ringer, he said, “Honestly, a lot of my hoop knowledge in knowing how to play comes from video games… When you’re playing 2K and you’re on that camera angle where you can see everything ahead of you, that’s how I think sometimes.”
He got his maiden appearance in the All-Star game last season. With the growing popularity, he will likely play his second consecutive All-Star game.
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What do you make of CP3’s basketball IQ? Let us know in the comments below.