Rumors

“McNeeley has the ceiling of Wally Szczerbiak and the floor of Matt Harpring,” an NBA scout told HoopsHype. “He’s one of the best shooters in his entire class. He’s not blessed with blazing speed and athleticism but isn’t a snail. McNeeley has an elevated basketball IQ that allows him to play well off the ball using screens. The lack of burst limits his isolation strengths, but he’s still effective in pick-and-roll situations. Ultimately, he should be utilized as a floor spacer as a third or fourth option.”

HoopsHype

“Who?” Haliburton deadpanned after the game. Of course, he knows exactly who Szczerbiak is after the former NBA player had called Haliburton a “wannabe fake All-Star” during a broadcast last season. Szczerbiak admitted on the air during Saturday’s game that “it wasn’t my finest hour” and he was “dead wrong.”

New York Post

Szczerbiak said he also reiterated that mea culpa while speaking with Halliburton’s father after the game. “It went really well,” Szczerbiak said during the MSG post-game show. “I told him ‘My apologies, that was not my finest hour’ when I called his son a ‘wannabe fake All-Star.’ “He’s an absolute superstar. He showed it today, it was on display. John Haliburton was a great guy. He said ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ve all had moments like that, and we forgive you, my man.'” Pressed on his interaction with Szczerbiak after the game, Tyrese Haliburton called it an “extracurricular activity,” but admitted it contributed to his motivation.

New York Post

Stefan Bondy: Tyrese Haliburton hits Szczerbiak with the “who,” then acknowledged he was motivated to beat the Knicks because of him

Twitter

Bally Sports Indiana: Haliburton had some fun with Knicks' broadcaster Wally Szczerbiak after another 20-20 performance: "He had some stuff to say last year. It's all done and over with but it's the first time I've seen him since then, so, had to say something." #Pacers

Twitter

Stefan Bondy: Wally Szczerbiak on MSG Network just now on calling Tyrese Haliburton a fake All-Star last season: “Wasn’t my finest hour. ..I was dead wrong.”

Twitter

Fred Katz: Tyrese Haliburton’s new profile pic after making All-Star last night: pic.twitter.com/jiYpXmrZpr

Twitter

Josh Hart: Congrats fake allstar @TyHaliburton22

Twitter

To his credit, Sczczerbiak did publicly apologize, but didn’t personally apologize to Haliburton when the Pacers revisited Madison Square Garden Wednesday night. For the record, Haliburton ranks eighth among Eastern Conference guards in All-Star game fan voting. And yeah, he heard what Sczczerbiak said. Of course, he did. “I don’t think it really bothered me all that much, to be honest,” he said recently. “… Like if it was somebody else, who really meant a lot to me growing up or something, like that would have bothered me. … I don’t really care about it that much. But you know, people have my back, I appreciate that, that’s always love. “I think maybe it’s been on my mind maybe a little bit going into these (recent) games, playing with a little more fire and juice. I take motivation from people with two (Twitter) followers; that’s just who I am.”

The Athletic

Haliburton is a cerebral player. He sees and absorbs everything — just watch him pass the ball. So on Tuesday, before they departed for New York City, I asked Haliburton whether Szczerbiak had reached out to him. “I haven’t talked to him,” he replied. Would you like to? “Not really.”

Fieldhouse Files

Wally Szczerbiak: Looks like an All-Star to me.

Twitter

Matt Barnes is now jumping on the bandwagon against Szczerbiak. The former NBA champ went all-in on Szczerbiak as he ripped apart the ex-Minnesota Timberwolves star over his Haliburton slander: “This bum a** motherf**ker Wally Sczcerbiak is just completely disrespecting Tyrese Haliburton, who’s leading the league in assists,” Barnes said. “(Szczerbiak) called him a fake All-Star and fake this and fake that. … I don’t see why former players feel like it’s their spot or does it make them feel better to disrespect these guys. To me, this s**t is super weak. I don’t like it.”

Clutch Points

“We have to critique, that’s part of our job,” Barnes continued. “But to me, you can critique without disrespecting, and I thought what Wally Szczerbiak did was some b**ch a** s**t.”

Clutch Points

Wally Szczerbiak on the Knicks pregame show last night: "I want to apologize personally to Tyrese Haliburton. He's a wonderful young player, he's definitely in the All-Star conversation, along with guys like Julius Randle & Jalen Brunson."

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