LAS VEGAS — Tyrese Haliburton can change his own narrative Saturday night, while LeBron James gets a chance to add yet another prize to his legacy.
It’s a game that doesn’t count in the NBA regular-season standings — but it has a ton of money, a trophy, medals and bragging rights on the line. Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers will take on James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the championship game of the league’s inaugural in-season tournament.
Both teams are 6-0 in the event.
The new tourney was something NBA commissioner Adam Silver wanted for years, likening it to what’s commonly done in top soccer leagues around the globe. James said the other major ideas on Silver’s watch — the bubble environment at Walt Disney World that finished the 2019-20 season in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic on the way to the Lakers winning the title, and the play-in tournament that sprang from that — both worked, and he has called the commissioner “a genius” for pulling this venture off, too.
“We’ve got to finish our breakfast on Saturday. That’s the most important thing,” James said. “But like I said, yeah, he’s pretty good. I said Adam is a genius. He does a great job, for sure.”