10:14 pm: Haliburton has published a photo of himself in his hospital bed, post-surgery, along with a candid message to Pacers fans (Twitter link).
“Words cannot express the pain of this letdown,” Haliburton wrote, in part. “The frustration is unfathomable. I’ve worked my whole life to get to this moment and this is how it ends? Makes no sense.
“… At 25, I’ve already learned that God never gives us more than we can handle. I know I’ll come out on the other side of this a better man and a better player. And honestly, right now, torn Achilles and all, I don’t regret it. I’d do it again, and again after that, to fight for this city and my brothers. For the chance to do something special.
“Indy, I’m sorry. If any fan base doesn’t deserve this, it’s y’all. But together we are going to fight like hell to get back to this very spot, and get over this hurdle. I don’t doubt for a second that y’all have my back, and I hope you guys know that I have yours.”
5:02 pm: Haliburton underwent an MRI on Monday which confirmed the injury, according to a Pacers press release. The surgery will be performed today by Dr. Martin O’Malley at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
12:33 pm: Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton has been diagnosed with a torn right Achilles tendon, sources confirm to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). Grant Afseth of RG.org, who initially reported that Haliburton suffered an Achilles tear, states that he’s traveling to New York on Monday to prepare for surgery to address the injury.
Haliburton had been playing through a right calf strain that he suffered in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The injury likely would have sidelined him for multiple weeks had it occurred during the regular season, but he was determined to play through it and was able to finish out Game 5 and compete in Game 6 without any setbacks.
With just over five minutes left in the first quarter of Sunday’s game, Haliburton caught a pass outside the three-point line and made a move to drive toward the Thunder’s basket. However, his right leg gave way as he pushed off and he fell to the court, where he shouted in frustration, grabbing his right lower leg and then pounded his fist against the floor (Twitter video link via ESPN). He was unable to put any weight on the leg as he was helped off the court.
It immediately looked like it might be an Achilles injury and John Haliburton, Tyrese’ father, confirmed as much to ESPN’s Lisa Salters prior to the end of the first half.
While the Pacers kept the game close for a little while after their starting point guard went down, the Thunder began to pull away in the third quarter and held their lead for the rest of Game 7 to secure the 2025 NBA championship.
“It’s heart-breaking, man,” Pacers reserve center Thomas Bryant said after the game, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required). “You never want to see that with any of our players, especially with Ty. He’s the heart and soul of our team. He’s our point guard. He’s our point god, you know? We all gathered around each other when he went down and said we’re trying to do this for him, man. And it just sucks that we couldn’t get that accomplished.”
“We needed Ty out there,” added forward Obi Toppin. “He’s been good for us all year. For him to go down at the beginning of the game like that, it sucked the soul out of us.”
It’s a devastating blow for the Pacers and for Haliburton not just because it came during Game 7 of the NBA Finals but because it means the 25-year-old’s availability for the entire 2025/26 season is now very much in jeopardy. It often takes a full calendar year for a player to return from an Achilles tear.
Haliburton averaged 18.6 points, 9.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.4 steals in 33.6 minutes per game in 73 regular season starts for Indiana, with a shooting line of .473/.388/.851. While that performance earned him a spot on the All-NBA third team, he was even more impressive during the postseason, making multiple game-winning shots for the upstart Pacers, who came within one win of claiming the first NBA title in franchise history.
Haliburton is the third Eastern Conference star to tear an Achilles during this postseason, joining Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Bucks guard Damian Lillard, whose injury occurred in the first round vs. Indiana. Haliburton is also the third Pacer to sustain that injury this season, as backup centers James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson both did so in the span of nine days in the fall.
Haliburton is under contract with the Pacers through the 2028/29 season, so the franchise figures to continue building around him once he’s ready to return.
Any thoughts on what’s up with the Achilles tears ? Could be coincidence but the Dame/Tatum/Hali all in a few weeks feels weird, esp given they weren’t all after calf strains
And weird coincidence that all three wear 0.
Westbrook better stay off his feet all summer until he signs his next contract……
maxey, please change your number!
Dont wear number 0 its worse than 13 apparently.
Dumb luck
Well Dame and Haliburton were both banged up before injury. Don’t know about Tatum. Imo you shouldn’t be pushing guys who are hurt already. The mantras in pro sports. Has always been if you are hurt you can play. Competition as a whole is tougher deeper today. Guys and teams have to learn to sit players. Give them time to heal. Then manage them closely when playing again. It’s tough cause its the playoffs. But a serious injury kills your next year too. Needs to be examined imo.
Wear and tear, these guys don’t rest. When off season comes they do pick up leagues Chet missed a whole season from that. If not doing pick up it is Fiba/ Olympics Middleton body never recovered after title to Olympics. Haliburton had a leg issue during his Olympics by the way. I don’t think they gave details but if it was same leg it was just a time bomb.
Its not a coincidence. I blew my Achilles at age 25. During that time, I was playing nightly and was playing against D1 players, former D1 players, NBA and former NBA players. I played D1 and the area I live has lots of former top players, Los Angeles. Pick up games at local parks had former NBA all stars playing.
My doctors theory was that my legs got tired and worn out and eventually the tendon just gave out. I also had a sprain prior to my break, but honestly I thought it was nothing.
Tatum had played for almost 2 years without any rest and Haliburton already had an issue with this lower legs. Players are playing way more competitive basketball and the injuries are coming from tired players who played many more games than say the 70s, 80s and 90s.
Basketball and tennis put a lot of stress on your legs and people play year-round now.
There will be more tendon breaks in the future. NBA needs to cut down the season and the playoffs and players need to stop playing during the summer and recuperate.
Great comment. It has to be the constant wear and tear with very few breaks.
11 PM Saturday night basketball in Torrance near Wilson Park baby !! Great runs in a converted warehouse thing in the 2000s. Same 4 dudes would roll up and always pick me as the 5th because I set great pics lol !! I definitely wasn’t good enough for D1 or even D3, but ran one year of JC in Southern California though and I’ll tell anyone who asks.., will always have that experience in my hip pocket, even if you can’t tell by watching me play today lol
Record high this year, saw something that stated the starters are running 200miles more per season in this pace and space era vs the days of Jordan, bird, magic, Kobe/shaq b/c that was 75% half-court offense. Even with more rest days and sitting regular season games it takes a toll esp on the starters playing 35+mins/night. I’d watch out for the knicks next year after Thibs ran them into the ground.
It’s weird how predictable these things can be like KD in the 2019 finals. Worth it in this case because a team like Indiana may never have a chance to win the finals again
The nba season is way too long. They need to shorten season and get rid of about 4-6 teams. Heck the season starts around Halloween and most kids in here can’t even remember what they wore for Halloween. Playoff injuries are the worst
They will never get rid of teams but the play-in is a joke and the first round should be best of 5. The second round is where the legit contenders play and they need to expedite it
They could also just double schedule first round games more. Like this whole no games at the same time thing means you burn a bunch of potential off days waiting for the playoffs to start over a week after the season for some, and then you have finals style 2 and 3 days off so they can have a bunch of non overlapping games in the worst round.
If they just started the playoffs a little sooner and had fewer off days in the first round they could have at least 2-3 between each round for each team, and never have 2 games in 3 days when theres travel. Like the league wants game 7s like this playoff has but its so punishing to go 7 and 1 day off and then game 1.
All this is done for scheduling so the CF have to be every other day cause your down to 2 series left and otherwise theres days with no games. This would be a great way to have high profile WNBA games on the nights with none since the season is just getting started during the later playoffs. Have more 2 days off in the CF so guys can recover and risk injury less.
No one cares about the WNBA
The NBA owners that own most of the WNBA teams do, so you can see why they would want to highlight their growing league thats value and ratings are going up quickly.
Best of 5 is the way to go.
They should shorten season. They give them less back to backs. Guys are resting you can’t expect them to ramp up to playing every other day when they are not conditioned to playing as much in regular season.
Season has been 82 games long since 1967-68. Haven’t athletes been babied enough? Most pro athletes overdo training and weightlifting which I’m sure doesn’t help. Plus who knows what else they do in their down time?
Athletes from 67 couldnt play 1 quarter of a modern NBA game. You get that right. Like back then you had to defend the 15′ from the basket in now its 40′ for some teams, and every single guy your guarding can run faster, jump higher, and shoot better than anybody in that era.
Like you take a 67 NBA team against a modern college team and the NBA team gets smoked…
The season is not too long. Coaches need to develop their bench players. Also the league should not schedule back to back games during the season, there is no reason for it. It would be interesting to see if there is something to the shoes and type of shoe. I notice a lot of players are not wearing high tops and have moved to 3/4 or low tops. I also think there is something to the weight lifting that these players do, and the effect it has on their tendons and such.
I’m all for getting rid of the sixers good idea
this sucks. another fun player to watch.
that being said, if you are a team in the east, now is your chance. with Dame, Tyrese and Jayson all down, the East is basically Cle, NY and then it’s wide open.
Orlando as well
The Bucks weren’t contenders even with a healthy Dame.
Again, another series ended by a star player being injured. Hard to expect casual fans to watch playoff games when they expect the best players to get injured.
Shortening the season, the playoffs, etc., and/or increasing the intervals between games, is not going to result in a lower rate of injuries during the playoffs. If it’s not done thoughtfully (and it won’t be if the current lords of the game do it), it will likely result in a higher rate of injuries during the playoffs.
That said, I’m all for shortening some combination of the regular season and playoff season. But more to increase the quality of the product, which is far more responsible for the lack of watchability of the games than any injuries. Of course, if the right thing is done for the wrong reason, that’s still a good thing.
Contraction? Now THAT would be every real basketball fan’s dream for the NBA. But like most dreams, they won’t reflect reality when awake. Silver wants expansion (further dilution).
I could see a 22-team league. Easily. I would eliminate New Orleans, Memphis, Charlotte, Orlando and Sacramento right off the bat.
I saw a model with 24, that worked very well. So, 22 could certainly work as well.
The 24 model sought to keep approximately the same number of total players under contract and same total salary for all players. It allowed for a full 24 team G-league or equivalent, staffed under the parents contracts. Which franchises to contract is always difficult, but certainly some markets would have a hard time funding the increased payroll per team. Like some you mentioned.
Get rid of Philly and Utah all they do is tank noone wants to watch that
Pretty sure the player’s union exists
Meaning what? The players are the least of the reasons it would never happen. The models I looked at keep their numbers and aggregate salary the same. It won’t happen because of the (existing) owners. They want to get their 6 Billion per expansion franchise. Not pay 6 Billion per contracted franchise. Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be good for the sport; it would be.
Coaches need to develop their benches to help reduce minutes for their stars.
I think the weight lifting is having an effect on these players bodies, making them bigger and stronger might be effecting their tendons and such.
The schedule does not need back to back games in the season. They should only play every other day Making some weeks 4 games and other weeks 3 games.
The NBA will always have this issue. Cause of the nature of the sport. The L has gone more offense to protect their stars. Even officiating is geared to protect stars. The best you can do imo.
Is train them to be at their strongest against injuries.
Manage their mins during season. Go ten deep is what I always say. So they can be stronger for playoffs. Then you can push mins some. No starter should avg more than 34 mins during season ……
Start there …… 10 deep rotations.
Exactly. The sheer amount of talent alone should be enough for an 8-10 deep rotation.
It’s about the front office/scouts picking the right players, it’s player development, it’s about coaches trusting their players.
The pressure to win is what drives this. Like they are their own worst (franchises) enemy lol. Love Thibs. But he plays to win. Doesn’t use bench if he doesn’t believe in them. But the pressure to win is there. Especially in NY when you are trying to turn franchises around. Like Indiana now. They’ve never won before. So Hali had to play …..
Have posted the same before …… the pressure to win, today’s game is so fast – on both sides of the court.
Some coaches are too set on their ways, Thibs being a great example.
Hali wanted to play, same with Carlisle and everyone else, they knew the risks and how they still had a chance (after game 5).
Don’t play injured. With today’s level of athleticism there needs to be way less games too. The playoffs were amazing this year, but the regular season including that early season tourney who I have already forgotten were boring.
Final 10 games of ref season were also really good. Cut 30-40 games.
Prayers to Haliburton. Get well and get back stronger. Pacers need you to contend for next 5-8 yrs. Get well player 🙏
Pacers will be a total different team when Hali comes back … Torn legacy
Juz play through it!
If anything, this proves god isn’t real.
Davey J ……. I’m not religious . I like to think I’m spiritual. We as humans do have a connection. And I do mean all humans. This ain’t the place to post that. I say that with respect ….🙏
Best wishes for a full recovery, Tyrese!