Achilles tendon rupture confirmed for Tyrese Haliburton

Absolute nightmare for the Indiana Pacers. Tyrese Haliburton has officially suffered a right Achilles tendon rupture during Game 7 of the NBA Finals against Oklahoma City Thunder, confirming worst fears after his spectacular fall early in the game. The 25-year-old point guard, already hampered by a calf injury sustained in Game 5, collapsed without contact on a drive to the basket with 4 minutes and 55 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

The images sent chills through everyone watching, starting with LeBron James who summed up the general emotion in a simple tweet: « F*** ». Haliburton immediately pounded the floor in frustration before being surrounded by teammates and evacuated to the locker room, his face covered with towels.

A legendary playoff run brutally interrupted

« What happened with Tyrese… It broke our hearts, » admitted coach Rick Carlisle in the press conference. « He delivered one of the greatest individual playoff runs in NBA history, making spectacular play after spectacular play. It’s something we had never seen. »

Haliburton had indeed achieved the feat of making a game-winning or game-tying shot in the final seconds of each of the first four playoff rounds, leading the Pacers to their first finals since the 1999-2000 season. His statistics speak for themselves: 17.3 points, 8.6 assists and 5.3 rebounds on average in playoffs, with a franchise record of 197 assists in a single playoff run.

« I’m proud of this young guy, » Pascal Siakam told the media. « He went through so much this year, a lot of criticism. It’s a lot to handle for a young player. He had a lot of pressure and he kept fighting, every day. This hurts. »

« In a game like that, it sucked our soul out »

The psychological impact on the team was immediate. « We were drained by all these events, » admitted Rick Carlisle, while Obi Toppin confessed: « For him to go down like that, in a game like that, it sucked our soul out. »

Even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, MVP of these Finals, paid tribute to his opponent: « My heart sank for him. I couldn’t imagine playing the biggest game of my life and having something like that happen. It’s so unfortunate and unfair. »

After undergoing surgery, Haliburton expressed himself on social media with palpable emotion: « I don’t know how to explain it other than shock. Words can’t express the pain of this disappointment. The frustration is unfathomable. » Nevertheless, the All-Star point guard has no regrets: « I would do it again and again, to fight for this city and my brothers. To have the chance to do something special. »

This injury, similar to Kevin Durant’s in the 2019 Finals, is likely to keep the Pacers without their leader for the entire 2025-26 season, compromising their future ambitions in an Eastern Conference already weakened by similar injuries to Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum.