One of the strangest media moments of this NBA season came when former player Wally Szczerbiak, now an analyst with the Knicks, went on a rant against Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton. After the Knicks beat the Pacers, Szczerbiak called Haliburton a “wannabe, fake All-Star” in an apparent attempt to boost the All-Star candidacy of New York’s Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson.
Tyrese Haliburton didn’t forget Wally Szczerbiak’s rant after making NBA All-Star
Tyrese Haliburton is an NBA All-Star after Wally Szczerbiak’s weird rant against him earlier this season.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Haliburton was stunned at Szczerbiak’s passionate criticism, and for his part Szczerbiak has since apologized. Szczerbiak’s rant feels even more bizarre now after Haliburton was announced as a first-time NBA All-Star on Thursday night.
Haliburton was named a reserve in the Eastern Conference — and honestly, he had a good case to start over Kyrie Irving. The Knicks got one All-Star in with Randle making the team, while Brunson was among our biggest snubs.
After Haliburton made the All-Star team, he immediately changed his Twitter picture to a screenshot of Szczerbiak’s rant:
Good one from Tyrese. He’s kept the receipts and changed his picture, but didn’t feel the need to say anything else about it.
Here’s Szczerbiak’s rant in full if you haven’t seen it yet.
Here’s our full look at the All-Star starters, the All-Star reserves, and the All-Star snubs. The 2023 NBA All-Star Game goes down Feb. 19 in Utah.
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