OKLAHOMA CITY — Tyrese Haliburton stood on crutches outside the Pacers locker room, welcoming teammates with an embrace as each one came off the floor following Indiana’s 103-91 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night.
Haliburton had not been able to finish the game alongside them after going down with a right lower leg injury in the first quarter and needing to be helped off the court.
His father, John Haliburton, told ESPN’s Lisa Salters during the broadcast that it’s an Achilles injury.
The seriousness of the injury was apparent from the moment the Pacers’ star guard — who had been playing through a strained right calf — crumpled to the floor without contact as he was attempting to drive to the basket with 4:55 remaining in the opening quarter.
He immediately began slapping the court in frustration and remained on the floor as virtually the entire Pacers team surrounded him.
“All of our hearts dropped,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
“We all are devastated for him,” Pacers guard T.J. McConnell added.
“I was thinking about it the whole game,” admitted Pacers forward Obi Toppin, who was 0-for-4 from the field.
Haliburton put no weight on the leg and had his face wrapped in towels as he was taken to the locker room. He spent the rest of the game surrounded by family, with applause that could be heard from outside the locker room as he watched the Pacers attempt to clinch a championship without him.
At halftime, with Indiana clinging to a 48-47 advantage, Haliburton remained a vocal presence, cheering on the rest of the team.
“That’s just who Ty is,” McConnell said. “To go down like that, be selfless and just continuing to cheer for us. Even though he can’t play, I think that just speaks volumes to who Tyrese Haliburton is, one of the greatest human beings I’ve come in contact with.”
Haliburton began the game looking primed for a classic performance in Game 7. He had scored nine points, knocking down 3 of 4 3-pointers, when he got hurt.
Despite suffering a calf strain in Game 5 of the Finals, Haliburton insisted on playing through the injury, saying, “If I can walk, I want to play.”
The day before Game 7, Haliburton acknowledged after practice his leg was “still stiff, still sore,” but he said he planned to play through it.
Indiana did not provide any further information on Haliburton’s injury Sunday night, but a torn Achilles tendon would put Haliburton’s status for the 2025-26 campaign in jeopardy.
“I’m proud of that kid,” Pacers co-star Pascal Siakam said. “He went through so much during the year. A lot of criticism. It’s a lot for a young kid to go through, and he had a lot of stress. And he just kept fighting. He kept fighting every single day.
“He did some incredible things, this whole playoff run and this year. I’m just super proud of him. Obviously, it hurts because we couldn’t get it done, and I wanted it so bad for him just because I know that he gave us everything — everything he had. It just hurts that he couldn’t see it through with us.”
Siakam praised Haliburton for bringing him to Indiana, and although Siakam said the Pacers were not happy with a moral victory, he acknowledged how proud he was of what the team accomplished.
“He’s going through some tough times, and he looked out for us and he wanted to be there for us,” Siakam said of Haliburton. “It just shows his character and who he is as a player. He’s one of the big reasons I’m here, and he made it kind of super fun for me to be here.”
The injury put a damper on what had been one of the most thrilling playoff runs in NBA history. Haliburton, 25, had been the breakout star of the postseason, leading Indiana on its improbable run to the Finals. In all four rounds, he hit a tying or winning shot in the final seconds, becoming the league’s first player do so in a single postseason.
He was averaging 17.7 points and a playoff-leading 9.0 assists on 46% shooting entering Sunday. His 197 assists were a franchise record for a single postseason.
“He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA with dramatic play after dramatic play,” Carlisle said. “It was something that no one’s ever seen and did it as one of 17. You know, that’s the beautiful thing about him: As great a player as he is, it’s always a team thing.”
