Thanks, but no thanks.
That was essentially the message from Tyrese Haliburton to Wally Szczerbiak as the Pacers visited the Garden on Wednesday night to meet the Knicks.
The Pacers’ star point guard has no interest in hearing what Szczerbiak has to say after the Knicks analyst criticized him following the Knicks’ win in Indiana on Dec. 18.
“Nah, zero,” Haliburton said on “The Woj Pod.” Szczerbiak has reached out to people close to Haliburton, but Haliburton has declined to speak to him.
The MSG Network analyst went at Haliburton after the first meeting between the two teams, calling him “Mr. supposed wannabe fake All-Star.”
“He’s a very good player, he’s not gonna make the All-Star team,” Szczerbiak said then. “A guy like Julius Randle or Jalen Brunson will make it over Tyrese Haliburton. Tonight we saw why.”
Haliburton, who is averaging 20.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists this year, has led the Pacers to a surprisingly successful season so far. They have won eight of their past 10 games and sit in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, a full game ahead of the Knicks. The comments have seemed to motivate him.
“For sure, it pushed me, because after that game we went and played Boston. I had a really good game in Boston. Then went to Miami, had my career high in Miami,” Haliburton said. “All the momentum has been going in the right way since then. We’re playing really well, winning games. It just brought more eyes to me as a player that could’ve went positively or negatively. I think my team has rallied around me. We’re just playing really well since then.”
Szczerbiak has since apologized on air about what he said, but he has yet to have a chance to speak directly to Haliburton about it, and the Pacers guard doesn’t seem to want to give him that opportunity.
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