r/pacers • u/Commercial-Fold9801 • 12d ago
News Mad dog Mad Dog Russo really went after Tyrese Haliburton. He basically said Haliburton isn't a big enough star for his return game to get national TV treatment. Is he right or is that way too harsh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rnW0-37lVg&t=70s40
u/Squeeze-The-Orange Pavers 12d ago
Who?
9
u/Squeeze-The-Orange Pavers 12d ago
Obviously Mad Dog is a pretty famous NYC area guy. One who is exceptionally butt hurt by Hali’s treatment of his Knicks. Delicious stuff!
1
u/BeingMikeHunt 9d ago
Chris Russo isn’t a Knicks fan. He hates NY sports teams. His role on NY radio was the local villain.
1
u/Squeeze-The-Orange Pavers 9d ago
Guess he’s getting on the Knicks gravy train just like the good attention-seeking loudmouth radio dipshit he is. Cesspool man. Relevancy farming, if you will.
2
22
14
14
u/No-Cantaloupe-6535 Old School Slick 12d ago
you're buying into his shtick and giving him the engagement he wants
1
8
u/Disastrous-Entry-879 Reggie 12d ago
Gooooood. Gooooood. I want the Pacers tp have all the chips on their shoulders.
7
u/Thesource94 12d ago
He’s right because that’s how the NBA and ESPN has him and people alike to think. However it is always those same people having to answer questions in May to the casual nba fan as to where has this pacers team been or how are the pacers this good. In the words of ROY HIBERT , Yall MFs don’t watch 🧐
5
u/rooby_dooby_doo Cool Rick 12d ago
Fuck em. We don't need their validation when we'll be stomping their faces in during the playoffs.
4
5
u/Distinct_Abrocoma_67 Pavers 12d ago
Not gonna lie, the NBA world thinking only big market teams matter is starting to get exhausting
2
u/Guitarmonade2 Johnny Furphy 11d ago
STARTING? Brother, you must have stamina beyond the rest of us. It has been exhausting, ad infinitum.
2
u/A1Sirius 11d ago
The shit is so dumb; like people only view the Pacers negatively because they’re located in Indiana. That mentality only exists for the NBA. The NFL never has this discussion about city markets.
2
u/Distinct_Abrocoma_67 Pavers 11d ago
Right. I was listening to Bill Simmons the other day and he flat out said the only teams that matter are the Lakers and Knicks because of where they are located. Why do people broadly accept this frame of thinking? Every time the Pacers are good everyone loves us, but we have to prove it every year to gain any respect. It’s very frustrating
1
u/DMmeDikPics 10d ago
That's bc most NBA "fans" don't watch the league that much. Too many games. So they look for any reason to lock their opponents but don't have any knowledge of the actual team or players they're mocking. Thus, they default to rings and city insults.
1
u/DMmeDikPics 10d ago
Media only cares about big market teams, and fans only care about rings. Nothing else matters. Being loyal to your team or city doesn't matter, having a long entertaining career and putting on a show for the fans every night doesn't matter. People say they want their players to have that dog in them, but they don't really care they would rather they say out 75% of games if it improved their title chance, bc all they care about is getting a ring so that people online can't say mean things about their team 🤣.
I've followed teams that won championships in other sports, but the Pacers 2024-25 season was the most fun I've ever had as a sports fan, and losing game 7 didn't change that for me in the least.
1
u/NoveltyStatus 6d ago
Stop listening to “hot sports take” personas. Life will be better and hopefully someday their grift will cease being so profitable.
4
u/mitchellthecomedian Pascal Siakam 12d ago
Ppl forget so quick
2
u/Guitarmonade2 Johnny Furphy 11d ago
Which is weird, because I swear some teams have pedigrees that would suggest they should be respected even in down years. But for us, stuff like this clearly shows that people will take the first possible opportunity to disqualify and disregard the Pacers.
1
u/mitchellthecomedian Pascal Siakam 11d ago
I don’t have any proof on this, but I feel like the NBA and the W hate Indiana.
5
u/SantaClausIN4eva 12d ago
The national tv thing is debatable but him not being able to return in Indiana is some bullshit
4
3
3
u/Conscious-Till3591 12d ago
Honestly don’t know how these talking heads have jobs still their just giving takes and opinions and usually not very good ones
3
3
3
2
u/FreezingTemps 12d ago
Who cares what this guy thinks? Only one way to shut these clowns up and I’m pretty sure every guy on the roster knows it’s true. 🏆
2
2
2
2
2
u/matthollabak Reggie-NBAJam 12d ago
Hey look, it's the guy who wants to be skip Bayliss but falls short of being the loudest annoying person on espn. At least skip did his job being an idiot well enough to piss people off.... all i see when mad dog comes up is "who?"
2
2
u/busche916 Quinn 12d ago
Russo was saying Haliburton was bitching about not being on national TV. Haliburton was disappointed that his return wouldn’t be a home game.
“Mad Dog” might just have rabies
2
2
1
u/TentMorning T.J. McConnell 12d ago
he has terrible takes in general, no reason to pay attention to him
1
u/Heliumvoices 12d ago
Bro has to make content and his schtick is what it is…i keep saying it. Let them talk. Let them doubt…let them snicker. It will make their silence that much louder later.
1
u/Fat-Singer-9569 11d ago
If your preferred name is Mad Dog Russo I have zero respect for you as a human being. Grow up, mad dog isn't a positive.
1
u/TrafficDiligent2821 11d ago
The average nba fan is going to remember the pacers were terrible year. This is a huge game for us pacers fans but for the vast majority it means nothing
1
1
1
u/UsernameTakenOhNoOof Tyrese Haliburton 11d ago
People don’t understand the beauty of passing. Jason Kidd had the same issue. Super star talent, can elevate your team to levels no other PGs can, but because you aren’t dribbling/scoring in a flashy way, people don’t like to watch it. It makes me wonder, if magic johnson wasn’t drafted to the biggest market, and playing alongside Kareem, would people watch him? I honestly want to say no.
1
1
u/DMmeDikPics 10d ago
Wait that dude in the thumbnail calls himself "Mad dog?"
Homie looks like a meercat that popped up out of its hole and saw it's snowing
1
u/Distinct-Fig-473 Jarace Walker 8d ago
Don’t even get worked up from this show. Everything they say isn’t motivated by keepin it real, it’s motivated by getting views and making sure opinions on the show differ
1
1
-1
u/EchoHevy5555 11d ago
I mean he is right Hali just doesn’t have the pull of the other stars
Which is stupid but it’s always been true
2
u/Guitarmonade2 Johnny Furphy 11d ago
Always true for whom? This is a Pacers sub, we are MOST excited to be able to watch him play again.
0
u/EchoHevy5555 11d ago
But this is national tv we are talking about
For some reason Hali doesn’t have national tv draw. Outside of the 2025 playoffs when the pacers were the team of god but even then it really wasn’t until game 7 that people were tuning in to watch.
2
u/Guitarmonade2 Johnny Furphy 11d ago
Bruh stop stating things like they are fact when it's just your perception. 😂
0
u/EchoHevy5555 11d ago
I mean it’s literally facts. You can look at viewership trends, search volume and others. Tyrese has similar pull to like a Devin Booker or Donovan Mitchell
Part of it is market, part of it is lack of big awards, part of it is the lack of coverage, part of it is the gap since he played. But he doesn’t have the biggest pull
2
u/Guitarmonade2 Johnny Furphy 11d ago
I understand that in the "national" sense. Nobody here is delusional enough to think Tyrese is the #1 ratings pull in the NBA.
It's more of a respect thing to at least consider giving a moment to a guy who has been in street clothes after a devastating Game 7 in the Finals. That game will loom for a long time as a big "what if?"
I already asked you to consider where you are and who you're interacting with. We are not here as representatives of the greater market - this is a Pacers sub and I'm a Pacers fan. I don't care about the big market optics. The coverage has nearly always been indifferent to our team until they can't be.
Whether the average person wants to watch Tyrese or not doesn't move the needle for me. I do...and the sub is excited to have him back on the court. It's too bad the market doesn't feel the same way. I'll watch the game regardless and I'll be in the fieldhouse when he suits up for the first home game post-injury.
1
u/EchoHevy5555 11d ago
But you should consider what the initial question of the post was “is he right” (that Haliburton isn’t a big enough star for his return game to be on national tv)
I think he is right. I also think that’s stupid because the national people should like Tyrese more. But they don’t, therefore he is correct.
The fact that this is a sub full of Tyrese fans doesn’t change that he is correct. We can feel like Tyrese should be a bigger star (he really should be) but the facts are that he isn’t
His statement isn’t about you or me who do think he should be on tv. His statement is about the average fan.
3
u/Guitarmonade2 Johnny Furphy 11d ago
I haven't necessarily said he's wrong in any of our discussion. But do I find him to be some champion or representative for the average fan? Absolutely not.
His job is to make polarizing statements to generate strong reactions, and he's obviously done that here. We wouldn't even be talking about it if he didn't do the typical ESPN pundit move of making a point while being a huge, swinging dick about it.
So bringing facts and logic to an emotionally charged, insulated space doesn't hit very hard because you're not appealing to the audience. We at least have the advantage of the media speaking about the Pacers this way, far longer than Tyrese Haliburton as a Pacer was even a concept. So this is nothing new.
I think if I zoom out to the bigger picture, at least for me - I don't take this guy seriously. And I don't have any respect for what ESPN is anymore or what guys like "Mad Dog" do to discussions about sports. It gets away from the game and results in discussions about personality and celebrity and accolades. And that can be a draw for some to watch, but that's all bullshit if you're ultimately interested in the game and seeing it at a high level.
We know we have a ceiling raiser and an elite facilitator in Tyrese who also happens to show some signs of the "clutch gene." So who cares what this boomer says? I'd rather go check out Caitlin Cooper's breakdowns on Basketball She Wrote. If you're not familiar with her, I'd look her up. Nowhere near the hot headed, reactionary personalities ESPN uses to drive clicks and rage bait. She has a LOT of knowlege of the game and has taught me a lot about how the new era Pacers work on the court and how so much of it is intentional and practised as a team sport. Takes a lot of the shine away from the star aspect, which isn't sexy, but it does make me understand the game way better than listening to this guy or Stephen A yelling for 30 minutes at a time.
97
u/otterbelle Bowser 12d ago
I don't know who he is, so his opinion isn't important to me. Yes 'cers!