NBA makes surprising decision on Tyrese Haliburton’s celebration

The NBA league office is apparently content with letting Tyrese Haliburton have his moment.

ESPN reported on Thursday that the NBA has made a surprising decision regarding the banned celebration that the Indiana Pacers star guard Haliburton did after hitting a game-winner against the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this week. The league is reportedly giving Haliburton a warning but will not be issuing him a fine.

Haliburton was the hero in Indiana’s victory over Cleveland on Tuesday in Game 2 of their second-round playoff series at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. He rebounded his own missed free throw in the closing seconds and proceeded to hit a stepback three-pointer, giving the Pacers the 120-119 win to go up 2-0 in the series.

After hitting the shot, Haliburton celebrated by doing the infamous “big balls” dance popularized by former NBA guard Sam Cassell. You can see the video of Haliburton’s celebration here.

Fans were universally expecting Haliburton to get fined for the celebration, and the two-time All-Star himself even said after the game that “I’ll take that fine, gladly.” After all, the NBA has a lengthy history of fining players for doing the dance. Veteran center Andre Drummond was the latest in a very long list of players to be fined for the “big balls” move, and even LeBron James was not able to escape a fine for doing so himself.

But it is possible that the league factored in Haliburton’s status as a first-time offender here (per Spotrac, the five-year NBA veteran Haliburton has never been fined or suspended by the league before except for the automatic fines that come with technical fouls). Thus, the vibes could not be higher for Haliburton and the Pacers, who now take a 2-0 series lead into their first home game of the series on Friday.