It does not matter at all if Tyrese Haliburton is a superstar or just an ordinary run-of-the-mill star in the wake of his heroics at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.

The Indiana Pacers once again benefitted from his late-game heroics and New York Knicks fans are extraordinarily miserable. Semantic arguments will do nothing to change the 1-0 lead the Pacers now enjoy in the Eastern Conference finals, or the indelible moment his buzzer-beating shot created as it hung in the air.

But First Take is doing that work. And Stephen A. Smith is just not willing to give Haliburton that status just yet.

"Superstar status is reserved for the select few, and I don't view him that way," Smith said.

Smith, who let everyone know that he wanted his Knicks to draft Haliburton, likes the Pacers guard a lot. Having said that, he pushes back a bit on the idea that people who make big shots can qualify someone as a star. He wanted to know if Robert Horry was a superstar, even though he wasn't comparing Haliburton to Horry.

The point is, when Smith thinks about superstars he thinks about guys like LeBron James and Stephen Curry. How does Haliburton change that? Unclear. Truth and time tell all, so maybe First Take can revisit this should Indiana make and/or win the NBA Finals.

Stay tuned. There's so much on the line.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Stephen A. Smith Not Willing to Call Tyrese Haliburton a Superstar Just Yet.

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