In the heat of a win-or-go-home Game 7, Tyrese Haliburton’s postseason ended in an instant. The Indiana Pacers star went down with what many feared was a serious leg injury, and as he confirmed this week on The Pat McAfee Show, the worst-case scenario came true. Haliburton had torn his Achilles. But while the diagnosis was devastating, it was the timing that hit the hardest. With everything on the line, Haliburton wasn’t thinking about his future or his recovery. All he could focus on was the fact that he couldn’t finish the fight alongside his teammates.
“In that moment, all that I am thinking about is that game specifically. You always hear people who have this injury say it feels like someone kicking you in the back of the leg. It’s not the most painful thing, but it does feel like if you let an elementary-aged kid just come up, line you up like a kickball, and just kick you in the back of the leg. That’s what it feels like. So when I went down, I knew right away what had happened,” said Haliburton. “I was just hurt that I wasn’t going to be able to be out there. That was just all those emotions coming out at once. But I wasn’t thinking about next year or all that’s led up to this, all I was just thinking about was being in the moment of Game 7, and that happening definitely sucked.”
Achilles tears are notoriously one of the worst injuries in sports. With a recovery time of 6-12 months, it’s a long process to regain strength and mobility in the affected limb. It’s a career-altering setback often described as feeling like someone kicked you in the calf. In the 2024-25 season, Haliburton was just one of several stars to suffer a major Achilles injury.
Prior to the incident, Hali was on track to have one of the best seasons of his career. After averaging 18.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 9.2 assists per game in the regular season (fourth seed at 50-32), he carried the Pacers to the NBA Finals with a chance to win the title. If not for his injury in Game 7, the Pacers may very well have walked away as champions.
According to Haliburton, he had been taking a cautious approach throughout the series due to some lingering pain in the back of his leg. Game 5 is where things got serious, and Hali admits that the doctors would not have let him play if it were during the regular season. He felt pretty good going into the final two games, right up until that injury derailed not only the current playoff run, but also most of the 2025-26 season.
Now, the Pacers are set to have a down year with Myles Turner gone and Haliburton in full recovery mode. It’s going to be some time before they can return to the NBA Finals and make amends for their loss in 2025. The good news is, Hali is already showing signs of improvement.
Haliburton’s path forward won’t be easy, but he’s already focused on the work ahead. With elite-level rehab, mentorship from veterans like Kevin Durant, and the same poise that carried him through a breakout postseason, he has every reason to believe he’ll return to form. The road back to the Finals may take time, but Tyrese Haliburton has proven he’s built for the long game.
