‘INDY, I’M SORRY’

GRACE SMITH/INDYSTAR - Fans react to Indiana Pacers guard 

Tyrese Haliburton going down with an injury on June 22.

Pacers could taste title. Now, we’re all sick to our stomachs 

25 Jun 2025 - The Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK

Gregg Doyel Columnist  

OKLAHOMA CITY – The locker isn’t empty, but almost. A small bag of chips on the cabinet, unopened. A few hangers on the overhead bar, empty. A rolling piece of black luggage nearby, zipped up and ready to go. If it belongs to Tyrese Haliburton — and this was his spot in the visitors’ locker room Sunday at Paycom Center, site of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals — someone else will need to grab it. Haliburton left the locker room with his hands full. You know. The crutches.

Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers are the talk of the NBA today, not the Oklahoma City Thunder, and that’s not the way these things normally go. Normally we celebrate our winners. The team that didn’t win — I’m not calling anyone in this series a — gets a pat on the head, words of consolation, congratulations on having a nice season. Better luck next time.

This wasn’t normal. The fourth-seeded Pacers galvanized a city, and then beyond, by slaying Milwaukee and its MVP dragon, Giannis Antetokounmpo — and then by eliminating top-seeded Cleveland and third-seeded New York. They had a little something for everyone: The dashing star in Haliburton, his workmanlike sidekick in Pascal Siakam, the longstanding, beloved veteran getting his long-deserved run to the NBA Finals (Myles Turner). The Pacers had flamboyance (high-flyin’ Obi Toppin), humbleness (spotlight-avoiding Andrew Nembhard), quiet professionalism (Aaron Nesmith) and uncommon heart (T.J. McConnell).

This wasn’t to normal. The Pacers pulled off comeback after comeback, winning a trio of games — one in each of the first three rounds, against the Bucks, Cavaliers and Knicks — that wouldn’t have gotten odds from Las Vegas. Why bother? The odds against a team winning all three of those games, against those deficits, with that little time on the clock? Math puts those odds at 17 billion-to-1. Math never could measure heart. The star of those comebacks in the first three rounds, and then of the Game 1 stunner at Oklahoma City in these 2025 NBA Finals, was Tyrese Haliburton. In one moment, Haliburton is being voted the most overrated player in the league in an anonymous poll from his peers, a perfect representation of this gutless age of social media. In the next, he’s hitting three game-winners in the final seconds, and forcing overtime with a buzzer-beater in a fourth game the Pacers eventually won.

“He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “It was something that no one’s ever seen.”

And then the story took a gruesome turn. Haliburton, playing on a strained right calf he suffered early in Game 5, was having his best start in these 2025 NBA playoffs — nine points in the first five minutes, and now he’s blowing past OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and heading to the rim — when he went down, all of it happening so fast, then caught by slow-motion:

Something in Haliburton’s lower right leg pops. The Achilles, according to his father, John Haliburton. When it happens, Haliburton does what so many victims of an Achilles injury have done before: He looks over his shoulder in shock, in pain, trying to see who just hit him with a baseball bat. That’s how badly it hurts.

Now he’s lying on the court, pounding the floor slowly, rhythmically, helplessly. He’s crying, and while the physical pain of a torn Achilles is brutal, this looks like emotional anguish. He knows what has just happened. He knows what it means. There are 43 minutes left in the biggest game in franchise history, but for Haliburton it’s over — his season, his NBA Finals, his Game 7.

What will become of his 2025-26 season?

What will become of the Pacers?

This story could go one of two ways, with two possible endings. Neither is promising. One is devastating.

From title contender to play-in hopeful?

What do you want first, the bad news? Or the news?

Listen, this story is going to take some real emotional maturity on everyone’s part, starting with Tyrese Haliburton. He’s the main victim here, the one facing the worst road, the one dealt the most cruel hand. Let’s make that clear, so we can move on with empathy for him as we take stock of what just happened, and what will come next.

What happened? You saw it. It was devastation. Not a lot more to say about it.

What comes next? A different kind of devastation, one that — unlike what happened during Game 7 — can be stomached, will have to be stomached, over the course of the coming days, weeks, months. That gives everyone time to adjust to the Pacers’ new reality, and to adjust fully we have to say goodbye to what we thought was their reality in 2025-26: Potential NBA champions.

With a healthy Haliburton, they were going to enter next season as the betting favorite in the Eastern Conference, and while the Thunder could be favored to win the next three or four NBA titles, the

Pacers have already shown they can compete with OKC.

Without Haliburton? Let’s say he returns late next season, as the recovery timeline suggests is possible. The Pacers will be near the salary cap limit if not well over it, especially if they re-sign Myles Turner, so their current roster — deep as it is — will mostly have to suffice. Is this a playoff team for 60 or more games, with Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell as the top two ballhandlers? Maybe.

And if Haliburton comes back, gets his feet under him, connects with his teammates — who will have spent five months learning to play a different way — and helps get the Pacers into the sixth or seventh seed? Maybe they get hot again. Maybe they win a playoff series, then get to pick late in the first round of the 2026 NBA draft.

Compared to what next season could’ve been, that’s dreary.

But what could happen instead? That’s demoralizing.

How does Tyrese Haliburton injury affect Myles Turner decision?

What you are about to read? Nobody wants it to happen. That includes me, OK? A boss of mine once told me: “Readers can’t read your mind, even as they read your words, so draw them a roadmap so they don’t get lost.”

Don’t get lost here: Nobody wants this to happen. But…

What if Tyrese Haliburton doesn’t come back next season? That’s possible. It’s probably likely. Typically this a full season, missed. And this wasn’t typical. Haliburton was injured literally in the last game on the last day for the 2024-25 NBA season. A return the following season, even in February or March, seems borderline impossible.

So then…

What if Myles Turner leaves? Listen, could you blame him? Could you? He’s a free agent and the Los Angeles Lakers are going to flirt with him, and might even offer him more money than the Pacers can, given their (unfair) financial freedom as an NBA franchise in Los Angeles.

Turner is entering his 11th season in the NBA. He just got a taste of the NBA Finals, and loved it. You heard him on the microphone after the Pacers beat the Knicks to win the Eastern Conference Finals. He was ecstatic.

So now, at age 29, Turner enters his 11th season with two options: Come back to Indiana and play for a team that will have to overachieve to win a single playoff series, a team that might do well to reach the play-in game because let’s be honest: As good and deep as this roster is, Haliburton is the key that unlocks all that pace, all that transition, all that space on the floor.

That’s waiting for Myles Turner behind Door 1. Behind Door 2?

LeBron James. Luka Doncic. The Los Angeles Lakers. That franchise, that city. And the Lakers are willing to spend whatever they can to make a run in 2026, in what could be LeBron’s final season.

If you’re Myles Turner, what do you choose?

This is not good. When Tyrese Haliburton was crying there on the court, he knew what had just happened … to Game 7, and to the following season. No, he wasn’t thinking about Myles Turner. But he was thinking, had to be thinking — could you blame him for thinking? — about the timing of an injury that had just wrecked one season, two hours from a possible NBA championship, and wrecked the following season as well.

Time for us to pay what we owe. The Pacers took us on a ride this season, something beyond our wildest dreams. Let’s return the favor next season.

***

Carlisle: It’s ‘very unlikely’ Haliburton plays next season 

Dustin Dopirak Pacers Insider

Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK 

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said on his weekly radio interview on 107.5 The Fan it was “very unlikely” Tyrese Haliburton will play at all next season after his Achilles tendon tear in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, but said he had an “uplifting” call with Haliburton immediately after the AllStar point guard’s surgery in New York on Monday night.

Carlisle said he was on a long car ride and called Haliburton at 8:49 p.m. thinking he would be out of surgery.

“He answered the phone on the first half ring,” Carlisle said. “He said, ‘Hey coach how you doing?’ He sounded totally upbeat. I said, ‘I’m doing great, how are you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m gonna be good. I’m gonna be good.’”

Carlisle said he noticed at that point that Haliburton had sent a picture in the group text including all the players on the roster and the assistant coaches of him in his hospital bed after surgery. The combination of the call and the picture were deeply meaningful, but Carlisle acknowledged Haliburton and the Pacers have a daunting task ahead.

“I really want the fanbase to understand this,” Carlisle said. “The exchange on the telephone last night at 8:49 p.m. Eastern Time was one of the most uplifting moments in my entire coaching career. People should be very hopeful. This is going to be a long haul, a long road back. Obviously, very unlikely that he'll play at all next year. I don't think I'm speaking out of school as a non-medical person.”

And the Pacers are of course, ready with contingencies and looking to build in more. Haliburton has missed time in the past and that has led to Andrew Nembhard being moved into a starting role and more responsibility being placed on T.J. McConnell.

“This will allow Andrew Nembhard to step into a different role, that's pretty obvious, and one that he's proven very capable of,” Carlisle said.

***

ALONZO ADAMS/IMAGN IMAGES - Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) 

is assisted after an apparent injury against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 

first half of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals on June 22 at Paycom Center.

Haliburton posts he doesn’t regret playing through strain

Dustin Dopirak 

Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK

INDIANAPOLIS – After surgery to repair his torn right Achilles tendon in New York on Monday evening, Pacers All-Star point guard

Tyrese Haliburton posted a lengthy message social media that he if he had to do it all over again, he’d still play in Game 6 and 7 of the NBA Finals despite a strained right calf.

Haliburton suffered the first injury in Game 5 and went through aroundthe-clock treatment to play to try to lead the Pacers to their first NBA championship in franchise history. He helped the Pacers win Game 6 to force a Game 7 on Sunday night in Oklahoma City, but crumbled to the floor on a drive with 5 minutes to go in the first quarter and had to be carried to the locker room. An MRI confirmed an Achilles tendon tear on Monday and he flew to New York for a surgery with Dr. Martin O’ Malley.

Haliburton said after Game 5 that as long as he could walk he wanted to play. After Game 6 he said he knew that if he didn’t give it a try, he would regret it. In Game 7, the worst-case scenario played out on the Paycom Center floor, but Haliburton said he’d still make the same bet.

“I know I’ll come out on the other side of this a better man and a better player,” Haliburton wrote. “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.”

That’s not to say Haliburton has gotten over the pain yet – physical or emotional.

“Man,” he wrote. “Don't know how to explain it other than shock. Words cannot express the pain of this letdown. The frustration is unfathomable. I've worked my whole life to get to this moment and this is how it ends? Makes no sense.”

He didn't say much about the surgery itself, but did say the feeling wasn't enjoyable.

“Now that I've gotten surgery, I wish I could count the number of times people will tell me I'm going to “come back stronger,” Haliburton wrote. “What a cliche lol, this (expletive) sucks. My foot feels like dead weight, fam. But what's hurting most I think is my mind. Feel like I'm rambling, but I know this is something I'll look back on when I'm through this, as something I'm proud I fought through. It feels good to let this (expletive) out without y'all seeing the kid ugly cry.”

Haliburton commiserated with the Pacers' fan base, which has seen its stars fall victim to devastating injury over and over with Paul George's broken leg and Victor Oladipo's quadriceps tear being among the most recent painful examples. The Pacers have never been as close to an NBA title as they were in these Finals, the first in which they have ever won three games.

“Indy, I'm sorry,” Haliburton said. “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.”

And despite the cliche, Haliburton vowed to use the opportunity to get stronger.

“I think Kobe (Bryant) said it best when in this same situation,” Haliburton wrote. “There are far greater issues/ challenges in the world than a torn achilles. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, find the silver lining and get to work with the same belief, same drive and same conviction as ever.” And that's exactly right. I will do everything in my power to get back right.”

“My journey to get to where I am today wasn't by happenstance,” Haliburton continued. “I've pushed myself every day to be great. And I will continue to do just that. The most important part of this all, is that I'm grateful. I'm grateful for every single experience that's led me here. I'm grateful for all the love from the hoop world. I don't “have to” go through this, I get to go through this. I'm grateful for the road that lies ahead. Watch how I come back from this. So, give me some time, I'll dust myself off and get right back to being the best version of Tyrese Haliburton.”

***

CHRISTINE TANNOUS/INDYSTAR - Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner looks for a 

pass option on June 19 while being defended by Oklahoma City Thunder guard 

Aaron Wiggins during Game 6 of the NBA Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Carlisle says re-signing Turner still ‘No. 1 priority’

25 Jun 2025

Dustin Dopirak

Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY NETWORK

INDIANAPOLIS – Re-signing veteran center Myles Turner remains a top priority for the Indiana Pacers in the offseason despite the Achilles tendon tear suffered by All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said on his weekly radio interview with 107.5 The Fan Tuesday morning.

Turner, whose two-year contract could not be extended by league rule, will have his contract formally expire when the league calendar flips over at 6 p.m. on June 30.

However, the Pacers can begin negotiating with him now that the NBA Finals are over. Reports have long indicated the Pacers intended to re-sign Turner and would be willing to go into the luxury tax to do so, but Haliburton's injury — which Carlisle acknowledged will likely keep him out all of the 2025-26 season — raised questions about whether the Pacers would want to re-consider that plan.

Carlisle, however, indicated it would not change the Pacers' approach and it would be the most important potential move of the offseason.

"I don't think it's any secret that the franchise, at this particular moment, that that is the No. 1 priority," Carlisle said.

"I don't know anything about money or numbers or years, or any of that kind of stuff, but Myles is a very important part of what we've done here, what we've been doing. He's a very important part of the history of the franchise, certainly over the last decade. I know that will be a big topic. I'm not privy to every little conversation going on there, but Myles is a very important part of what we're doing. That will be a big thing."

Turner just finished his 10th season with the Pacers and is the longest-tenured player on the team. He leads the franchise in blocks with 1,412 for his career. He averaged 15.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game this season with his 144 total blocks ranking third in the NBA.

He made a career-best 39.6% of his 3point shots with a career high 156 3pointers. He struggled in the Pacers' NBA Finals loss to the Thunder but averaged 13.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in the playoffs and his 46 total blocks were the most of any player in the playoffs.

If Turner re-signs, the Pacers would have all five of their playoff starters signed through at least the 2026-27 season.