WHAT THE HALIBURTON! The Indiana Pacers have shocked the world once again. The Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the entirety of game one of the 2025 NBA Finals, but somehow, the Pacers had magic once again. With just around seven seconds to go, Tyrese Haliburton would handle the ball with Indy down one. He would drive and pull up in the midrange, right over Cason Wallace and drain the game-winner.
This basket gave the Pacers their first lead of the night, and it came with 0.3 seconds remaining in the game. OKC only turned over the ball 6 times, while Indiana turned over 24 times, but it didn't matter because Haliburton hit yet another clutch and timely shot. But enough about game one. Let's take you back to the 2020 NBA draft, a night when the Sacramento Kings drafted Haliburton 12th overall.
What could've been
Heading into the 2020 NBA draft, Tyrese Haliburton was considered a consensus top-8 pick. The Bulls were picking at 4, and needed a true point guard like Hali, but they opted for Patrick Williams. The Pistons desperately needed a franchise point guard, but they opted to take Killian Hayes over Haliburton at pick 7. The same story applies to the Knicks, who took one of Hali's future teammates, Obi Toppin, instead of him at pick 8.
Hali would continue to slide and somehow still be on the board at pick 12, where the Sacramento Kings were selecting. Surely, the Kings wouldn't take him. They had a young franchise point guard in De'Aaron Fox, who was coming off a strong 3rd year in the NBA, where he averaged a career-best 21.1 points per game. Well, the Kings did the most Kings thing possible and drafted him only to trade both him and Fox by 2025.
This left the Pelicans, who were a team that very clearly planned on drafting a point guard at pick 13 with Kira Lewis Jr., who is no longer in the NBA. To think there's an alternate reality where Zion Williamson is catching lobs from Tyrese Haliburton or running pick-and-rolls with him isn't a happy thought for Pels fans.
The idea of the Kings doing what any other organization would have done in that spot, which is drafting a wing or trading the pick, is just a magical thought. But you must remember that this is the Kings we're talking about, which means they will do the opposite of every other organization. The truth is, Indy is living the Pelicans' dream, as a small-market team that plays with a fast pace, and is in the NBA Finals.
On the bright side, Pelicans fans, your team has the 7th overall pick in this year's draft and wasn't the team that traded away both Tyrese Haliburton and De'Aaron Fox in the span of three years. So hopefully, that is considered a win in your book.