Tyrese Haliburton

Thunder Win First Championship Since Move; SGA Named Finals MVP

June 22nd, 2025 at 10:07pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Thunder claimed their first NBA championship since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City, as they defeated the depleted Pacers, 103-91, in Game 7 on Sunday.

Seattle, which won the championship in 1979, relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008. The Pacers, who have never won an NBA title, played the last three quarters without Tyrese Haliburton, who suffered an Achilles injury in the first quarter.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, this season’s Most Valuable Player, also earned Finals MVP honors, the league announced (via Twitter). It’s the 16th time a player has won both in the same year, though it hasn’t happened since LeBron James pulled it off during the 2012/13 season.

The Thunder should be major contenders for years to come with their young core, featuring Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. The top priorities for the Thunder this offseason center around extensions.

Gilgeous-Alexander has met the performance criteria for a super-max contract and will become eligible to sign that extension next month. The 2024 MVP runner-up still has two years left on his current deal and can’t exceed six years in total, so the maximum value of his extension would be a projected $293.4MM over four years, beginning in 2027/28.

Williams and Holmgren are eligible for rookie scale extensions until the beginning of next seasons and both could receive the max – five years and a projected $246MM. The maximum value of those extensions could increase to a projected $296MM if All-NBA, MVP or Defensive Player of the Year honors are negotiated into the contracts.

The Pacers’ offseason outlook could change dramatically due to Haliburton’s injury. Myles Turner, their starting center, is headed to unrestricted free agency and while the Pacers reportedly want to re-sign him, they could have plenty of competition. Bennedict Mathurin is eligible for a rookie scale extension.

Several other key players, including Haliburton and Pascal Siakam, are signed through at least the 2027/28 season. Could they look to shed salary in light of Haliburton’s injury?

With the NBA Finals decided, the 2025 NBA offseason is officially underway. For the second straight year, teams will be permitted to negotiate contracts with their own free agents one day after the Finals. Players who won’t be free agents this offseason but who will become eligible to sign contract extensions on July 6 will also be permitted to begin negotiations with their current teams on Monday.

Thus, it wouldn’t be surprising if some agreements are reported this week. Free agent contracts still can’t be officially finalized until after the July moratorium lifts on July 6.

The draft will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, with free agency beginning on June 30 at 6 p.m. Eastern time.

Tyrese Haliburton Exits Game 7 With Achilles Injury

June 22nd, 2025 at 8:21pm CST by Luke Adams

8:21 pm: ESPN’s Lisa Salters spoke to Haliburton’s father prior to the end of the first half and he confirmed that his son suffered an Achilles injury (Twitter video link).

The team will likely be conducting more tests to confirm the diagnosis, but if it’s an Achilles tear for Haliburton, it could cost him the entire 2025/26 season.

7:50 pm: Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton has exited Game 7 of the NBA Finals in the first quarter after sustaining a right lower leg injury (Twitter video link via ESPN). He won’t return to the game, according to the team.

With just over five minutes left in the first quarter on Sunday, 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 and banged his fist against the floor. He was unable to put any weight on the leg as he was helped off the court.

Haliburton had been playing through a right calf strain that he suffered in Game 5 of the series. 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.

Playing through a calf strain generally increases the risk of suffering a major Achilles injury (ie. a tear) — that happened to Kevin Durant when he attempted to return early from a strained calf in the 2019 NBA Finals.

We don’t know that Haliburton injured his Achilles tonight and we’ll obviously be hoping for a best-case scenario, but video of the play and the guard’s reaction suggest the injury is a significant one, affecting that lower part of his right leg.

An All-NBA third-teamer during the regular season, Haliburton has made several huge game-winning shots for the Pacers during the playoffs, leading the way for the upstart club as it pulled off multiple upsets in the Eastern Conference bracket and pushed the 68-win Thunder to a Game 7 in Oklahoma City. If Indiana is going to win its first NBA championship on Sunday, the team will have to do it without its starting point guard.

Pacers Notes: Haliburton, Siakam, Game 6 Strategy

June 21st, 2025 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Pacers weren’t sure if they would have Tyrese Haliburton for Game 6 due to a strained right calf, but there are no worries heading into Sunday’s series finale at Oklahoma City, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Haliburton is still getting around-the-clock treatment on the calf, but he vowed at Saturday’s media session that he’ll be in the lineup.

“I’m pretty much in the same standpoint I was before Game 6,” Haliburton said. “A little stiff, a little sore, rather. Good thing I only had to play like 23 minutes (on Thursday). I’ve been able to get even more treatment and do more things. Just trying to take care of it the best I can. But I’ll be ready to go for Game 7.”

Trainers said Haliburton may have been sidelined for a couple of weeks if the injury had happened during the season, but he underwent extensive medical procedures and wore a compression sleeve to stabilize the calf area. He explained that he feels an obligation to his teammates and can’t stand the thought of letting them down.

“We’re a group of guys that get along really well and are trying to do something special,” Haliburton said. “I think the expectations for this group from an external viewpoint coming into the year weren’t very high. They weren’t very high coming into the playoffs. They weren’t very high going into the second round of the playoffs. They weren’t very high going into the third round. They weren’t very high now. I think we just have done a great job of just staying together. There’s not a group of guys I’d rather go to war with. I’m really excited to compete with these guys in a Game 7, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

There’s more on the Pacers:

An odd sight before Game 6 was a shot of Pascal Siakam in a team huddle where only the whites of his eyes were visible (Twitter video link). Siakam explained what happened, telling reporters he was in the middle of a pregame prayer, Dopirak adds in a separate story. “I have this problem where I can’t really close my eyes,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll be thinking I’m closing my eyes, but they are not really closed. Even sometimes having conversations, sometimes I look up and it feels like I’m thinking, and my eyes just go up.”
Coach Rick Carlisle flummoxed the Thunder in Game 6 by scaling back the pressure defense he had used throughout the series, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Instead of attacking OKC’s ball-handlers, the Pacers waited to trap until they crossed mid-court, minimizing their chances of creating easy baskets.
The Pacers may not have the star power of a traditional champion, but they’ve been able to work together to reach the brink of an NBA title, observes James Boyd of The Athletic. From their stars to the end of their bench, the Pacers are loaded with players who have been forced to prove themselves again and again. “We have a group of people that probably wasn’t given anything,” Siakam said. “We’re in a situation where, at the end of the day, nobody really cares to see us win.”

Pacers Notes: Haliburton, Siakam, McConnell, Game 7

June 20th, 2025 at 7:52am CST by Luke Adams

Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton received a “wide range” of treatments in an effort to get him ready for Game 6 of the NBA Finals, according to Jamal Collier of ESPN, who says those treatments included hyperbaric chambers, needles, massages, electronic stimulation, and a compression sleeve on Haliburton’s calf.

Fortunately for the Pacers, they raced out to a big first-half lead on Thursday and extended that lead in the third quarter, putting them in position to hold Haliburton out of the fourth quarter and reduce his workload for the night. He had 14 points and five assists in 23 minutes, with Indiana outscoring the Thunder by 25 points when he was on the court.

“He did amazing,” Pacers forward Obi Toppin said after the victory, per Shakeia Taylor of The Athletic. “He led us to a win, and he’s a soldier. He’s not going to let no little injury hold him back from playing in the finals and helping this team win. He’s helped us get to this point, and he’s going to keep going until he can’t.”

Haliburton was listed as questionable on the Game 6 injury report and was considered a game-time decision on Thursday, but multiple teammates – including Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner – said they had no doubt the All-NBA guard would be on the court when the game tipped off.

“I just look at it as I want to be out there to compete with my brothers,” Haliburton said, according to Taylor. “We’ve had such a special year, and we have a special bond as a group. I think I’d beat myself up if I didn’t give it a chance. I just want to be out there and fight. (I) just had to have an honest conversation with Coach (Rick Carlisle) that if I didn’t look like myself and was hurting the team, like, sit me down. Obviously, I want to be on the floor, but I want to win more than anything.”

Here’s more on the Pacers on the heels of their Game 6 victory:

As big a role as Haliburton has played to get the Pacers to this point, Siakam actually looks like the frontrunner to be named Finals MVP if Indiana can pull out a win in Game 7, notes Sam Amick of The Athletic. The veteran forward, who put an exclamation point on a huge second quarter with a poster dunk over Jalen Williams and a buzzer-beating fadeaway, won a title in Toronto, but feels like he has grown significantly as a player and a leader since that 2019 championship. “I wasn’t a leader then,” Siakam said. “… I think this time around, just having been one of the only guys that has been there or one of the few guys that has been there, and I’m year nine or 10 or whatever, it’s like I have way more to say and I can impact not only by saying things but also on the floor.”
With another big performance in Game 6, Pacers guard T.J. McConnell became the only player in league history to record at least 60 points, 25 assists, 15 rebounds, and 10 steals off the bench in an NBA Finals, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. However, McConnell’s impact goes beyond the box score. “Any time he comes into the game, the crowd loves him, and he feeds off of that,” Toppin said. “He had a great start to (Thursday’s) game, and it got us going. Brought juice into the game, energy into the game.”
While the Pacers will carry the momentum from their resounding Game 6 victory into Sunday’s Game 7, they know they’ll still be significant underdogs in Oklahoma City against the 68-win Thunder, as Zak Keefer of The Athletic details. They also know that anything can happen in a single game. “One game,” Carlisle said on Thursday. “This is what it’s all about. This is what you dream about growing up, this opportunity.”
Stephen Holder of ESPN spoke to former Pacers like Metta Sandiford-Artest, Lance Stephenson, Stephen Jackson, and Rik Smits about what it would mean to them – and to the city – if this Indiana squad can win a championship on Sunday. “This franchise really deserves it,” Smits said. “We had a lot of great years, but obviously never made it this far. So, I’m just happy for the team, the owners, the whole city. It’s a great fan base here. I’ve always loved playing here, so I would love to see a championship.”

Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton Will Play In Game 6

June 19th, 2025 at 7:40pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

7:40 pm: Doctors informed Haliburton that his calf ailment would normally take multiple weeks to recover, per Shams Charania of ESPN (via Twitter). Given the stakes, the Pacers guard pushed to play.

5:52 pm: All-NBA Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton will suit up for Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Thunder on Thursday night, head coach Rick Carlisle told reporters (Twitter link via Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press). Carlisle added that Haliburton won’t face any sort of minutes limit (Twitter link via Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports).

It had previously been reported that the 25-year-old Olympian intended to give it a go, but his availability had not been confirmed. Haliburton had been considered a game-time decision to play through a right calf strain incurred in the first half of Monday’s Game 5, a 120-109 loss.

The defeat marked the first time Indiana had lost two consecutive games during its postseason run to the Finals this spring.

Across 21 contests in his second-ever playoffs, Haliburton has averaged 17.9 points, 9.1 assists, 5.8 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 0.7 blocks per game. Those numbers dipped a little in Game 5 when the former Iowa State star attempted to play through the calf injury.

Haliburton failed to connect on a single field goal attempt on Monday, finishing with four points on 0-of-6 shooting. He did chip in seven rebounds and six assists.

Indiana, playing in its first Finals since 2000, now returns to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on the brink of elimination. The Pacers trail the Thunder 3-2 in the series.

Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault, in his own pregame presser, anticipated that Haliburton would give it his all, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (via Twitter).

“We’re expecting his best punch,” Daigneault said. “Indiana’s a great team, we’re expecting their best punch.”

Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton Intends To Play Game 6

June 19th, 2025 at 3:19pm CST by Rory Maher

Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle on Wednesday referred to Tyrese Haliburton as a game-time decision for Game 6, with the star point guard later stating was going to everything he could to suit up after suffering a right calf strain.

Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that as long as he’s medically cleared, Haliburton intends to play tonight as Indiana looks to stave of elimination and extend the NBA Finals to seven games.

“From my understanding, he has every intention of playing tonight,” Charania said. “… Unless there’s some kind of a setback there (at the 5:00 pm ET walkthrough) where the medical team (decides to hold him out), he’s fully intending to be out there tonight. He’s going to gut it out. I would expect to have some padding on that calf.”

In a subsequent appearance on NBA Today, Charania shed a little more light on the severity of Haliburton’s injury (Twitter video link).

“It is a calf strain. … These are tricky injuries with the calf, we know the implications it could have on the rest of your leg,” Charania said. “I was told today, if this were the regular season, Tyrese Haliburton would be missing multiple weeks. So if he is able to play, how does he look? How sharp does he look? Or how much does he struggle and how much is he limited?”

While Haliburton managed to play 34 minutes in Monday’s Game 5 loss, he clearly was hampered by the injury, having missed all six of his field goal attempts and being limited to just four points, compared to his playoff average of 17.3 PPG. On the NBA’s latest injury report, the 25-year-old is officially listed as questionable.

If the third-team All-NBA guard is unable to suit up, T.J. McConnell and Andrew Nembhard will be in line for increased ball-handling and play-making responsibilities.

NBA Finals Notes: Game 6, Daigneault, SGA, Haliburton

June 19th, 2025 at 10:02am CST by Arthur Hill

With a chance to capture their first title since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City, Thunder players are focused on the process of winning Game 6 rather than its historical implications, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Heavy favorites when the series began, OKC has a chance to celebrate tonight on the Pacers‘ home court.

“We want to win the game tomorrow, but the most important thing we need to do to win the game tomorrow is prepare today and prepare tomorrow and play the first possession really well, then the next possession, then the next possession,” coach Mark Daigneault told reporters on Wednesday. “That’s how we try to approach a game, how we try to approach the playoff series, how we try to approach every single day and let that win the day.”

The Thunder have largely controlled the series after letting Game 1 slip away due to a miraculous Indiana comeback. They won handily in Game 2, staged a rally of their own in Game 4, then took their first lead of the series in Game 5. MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is encouraging his teammates to take their normal approach to tonight’s game and not get distracted by thoughts of a victory celebration.

“The cusp of winning is not winning,” he said. “The way I see it, winning is all that matters. It hasn’t been fulfilled. We haven’t done anything.”

There’s more on the Finals:

Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton is considered to be a game-time decision, but ESPN’s Brian Windhorst expects him to play. Appearing this morning on Get Up (YouTube link), Windhorst noted that Indiana’s medical staff already had the results of Haliburton’s MRI from Tuesday when the team listed him as questionable. He believes the Pacers are “setting the stage” for Haliburton to be active, but it’s uncertain if the right calf strain is too severe for him to be effective.
An ESPN panel doesn’t give the Pacers much chance of extending the series if Haliburton can’t live up to his normal standards. While most of the group expects the Finals to end tonight, Jamal Collier observes that Indiana’s role players have performed better at home, while Zach Kram points to Andrew Nembhard as someone who could swing the series if he can find a way to score like he did earlier in the playoffs.
With the Finals nearing their conclusion, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic examines why the games often seem less important than they used to. He cites a number of factors, including a “humdrum” presentation and the league-wide focus on the transactions cycle, and suggests that things may change when NBC resumes its coverage of the NBA this fall.

Carlisle: Haliburton Likely ‘Game-Time Decision’ For Game 6

June 18th, 2025 at 11:44am CST by Dana Gauruder

11:44am: Haliburton confirmed after Wednesday’s light practice that he has a calf strain but he’s hopeful he can play in Game 6, Spears tweets.

“I’m a competitor. I want to play. I’m going to do everything in my power to play,” Haliburton said.

11:01 am: With his team’s season on the brink, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle anticipates that Tyrese Haliburton will be a “game-time decision” for Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star relays.

Carlisle commented on Haliburton’s status during a Wednesday morning radio interview on 107.5 The Fan.

“He is going to be carefully evaluated over the next 36 hours and will likely be listed as questionable on the injury report and probably will be a game-time decision for Game 6,” Carlisle said. “Everything is on the table.”

Haliburton did not make a field goal in Indiana’s Game 5 loss to Oklahoma City as the Thunder grabbed a 3-2 lead in the series. Game 6 will be played in Indianapolis. The star guard reportedly underwent an MRI on Tuesday due to an injury believed to be a right calf strain.

“We have to prepare for two scenarios: one where he plays and one where he does not,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle said rotation changes could be coming, regardless of Haliburton’s status. Indiana has lost the last two games of the series.

“Everything is on the table,” Carlisle said. “… It’s pretty simple. Tomorrow night our task is to take care of home court – which is what they did in Game 5 – and get to an ultimate game, which is Game 7. That’s the task in front of us. We have to figure out exactly what tools are in front of us as a team and we have to consider everything. Minute count, throwing that out the window is easy to say, but if you have guys out there that are more fatigued than they should be, that’s not good and against this team, that’s very difficult.”

Center Myles Turner remains defiant that the Pacers can win the next two games, as he told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears. Turner declared, “It’s not over” shortly after the Game 5 loss.

“Our fans have been anticipating this for such a long time,” Turner said. “They’ve been antsy. The biggest thing is to show up for Game 6. They’ll be behind us and be as loud as they were here [in Oklahoma City]. For someone in my position, you never know when you can get this opportunity again. This is the youngest, healthiest and most spry I will ever be. For me, I just got to give it all that I’ve got. Back against the wall. Empty the tank.”

Tyrese Haliburton Undergoing MRI On Right Calf Injury

June 17th, 2025 at 2:01pm CST by Luke Adams

2:01 pm: Haliburton is believed to have suffered a right calf strain and is undergoing an MRI to determine the severity of the injury, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

9:32 am: Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, who spoke earlier in the NBA Finals about dealing with a “lower leg” issue, was hampered by an injury affecting the same leg during the team’s Game 5 loss on Monday, writes Jamal Collier of ESPN.

Haliburton’s initial lower leg issue was later revealed to be a right ankle ailment. On Monday, he went to the locker room in the first quarter due to right calf tightness before returning to the court and finishing the game. He told reporters after the loss that Monday’s injury was in the “same area,” but that he never considered shutting it down for the night.

“It’s the Finals,” Haliburton said. “I’ve worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete, help my teammates any way I can. I was not great tonight by any means, but it’s not really a thought of mine to not play here. If I can walk, then I want to play.”

Monday’s performance was easily Haliburton’s worst of the NBA Finals. His four points matched a personal career playoff low, and he didn’t make a single field goal attempt, going 0-for-6 from the floor as the Pacers fell behind 3-2 in the series. He did manage to grab seven rebounds and hand out six assists, but Indiana was outscored by 13 points when he was on the floor in a game the team lost by 11 points.

“Just trying to keep pace in the game, impact whatever way I can,” Haliburton said, per Shakeia Taylor of The Athletic. “Just trying to get (Pascal Siakam) the ball in the right spots. Try to get the ball to guys in the right spots if I can. As far as what happened there, we have to watch film to see it.”

Having their All-NBA point guard battling health issues obviously isn’t ideal for the Pacers as they prepare for a win-or-go-home Game 6 in Indiana, but head coach Rick Carlisle expressed confidence the Haliburton will be available on Thursday.

“He’s not 100 percent. It’s pretty clear,” Carlisle said. “But I don’t think he’s going to miss the next game. We were concerned at halftime, and he insisted on playing. I thought he made a lot of really good things happen in the second half. But he’s not 100 percent. There’s a lot of guys in the series that aren’t. We’ll evaluate everything with Tyrese and see how he wakes up tomorrow.”

As Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star writes, backup point guard T.J. McConnell gave the team some huge minutes on Monday with Haliburton struggling. McConnell scored 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting in 22 minutes off the bench.

If Haliburton doesn’t look like his normal self on Thursday, the Pacers may have to lean more on McConnell, Siakam, and Andrew Nembhard for play-making.

And-Ones: Howard, Jordan, Shoe Deals, 2019 Redraft

June 15th, 2025 at 8:59am CST by Arthur Hill

Dwight Howard was ejected Saturday during his BIG3 debut for getting into a fight with former NBA player Lance Stephenson, BasketNews relays. The scuffle began after Howard, who plays for the Los Angeles Riot, appeared to get elbowed in the chest by Stephenson of Miami 305. Howard swatted Stephenson’s arm away, and they began exchanging punches (video link from Ballislife.com).

“This is not exactly how I pictured my debut going,” Howard said in a statement released by his team.

Stephenson was also involved in an incident with L.A.’s Jordan Crawford, BasketNews adds. After a brief confrontation, Crawford put his hand in Stephenson’s face and touched his nose. Stephenson responded by throwing a punch, but both players stayed in the game.

Howard, an eight-time All-Star and a member of this year’s Basketball Hall of Fame class, is one of the most significant names ever to join the BIG3, which is now in its eighth season.

“Dwight’s legacy speaks for itself,” league co-founder Ice Cube said. “He still has fun playing the game … and now he gets to show his full skill set in the BIG3.”

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Michael Jordan is looking forward to joining the NBC Sports broadcasting team when the network resumes covering the NBA this fall, announcer Noah Eagle said during an appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast with Brandon Contes. Jordan will serve as a special contributor, but his duties haven’t been defined. Eagle said NBC Sports executive Jon Miller, a longtime friend of Jordan who arranged his hiring, told him that the NBA legend is “legitimately excited.” “And I asked him, I said, ‘Is he legitimately in on this?’ And he was like, ‘Yes, he’s fully, fully in,’” Eagle said. “Whatever that means is great. I have no idea what he’s going to be doing, but I just love the fact that I can walk around and be like, ‘You know my colleague?’ ‘Who’s that?’ ‘You know, Michael Jordan. No big deal. Just a Hall of Famer. Some would say he’s the greatest basketball player ever, but, yeah, he’s also my co-worker.’”
Jason Jones and Shakeia Taylor of The Athletic examine the evolution of shoe contracts among NBA players, noting that Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton is debuting the Puma Hali 1 during the Finals. Jones and Taylor state that players are placing greater emphasis on ownership and control of their brands.
Memphis guard Ja Morant rises to the No. 1 pick as HoopsHype conducts a 2019 redraft. Cleveland guard Darius Garland also moves ahead of New Orleans forward Zion Williamson, the actual No. 1 pick, with Miami guard Tyler Herro and Washington guard Jordan Poole rounding out the top five.

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