As the old adage goes, it is better to have loved and lost than to not have loved at all. For the Indiana Pacers, however, was being one win away from an NBA championship really that worth it? Especially considering that it cost them Tyrese Haliburton, who will be missing the entirety of the 2025-26 season (one would presume) after suffering a torn Achilles in the biggest game of the season — Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Without Haliburton, it's not likely for the Pacers to make another deep playoff run next year. And while modern medicine has made plenty of advancements in the field of Achilles recovery, this is still one of the most devastating injuries a professional athlete could suffer. Just to top it all off, Haliburton is only 25 years of age, and losing a prime year due to injury can never be a good thing.
But for Haliburton, he does not feel any sense of regret for pushing through in Game 7 despite being less than 100 percent healthy in the build-up to that contest — with Kevin Durant, who also suffered a torn Achilles of his own in the NBA Finals in 2019, inspiring the Pacers star point guard.
“No. Hell no. Hell no. I’ll be honest—I called KD after I got my MRI after Game 5. I said, ‘Bro, do you regret playing in the game you tore [your Achilles]?’ He said, ‘No, not at all.’ He said, ‘You never…’ I was like, ‘Alright.’ Yeah, I wasn’t going to switch anyway, so I’m glad he said that. It made me feel a little bit better. But no, I don’t regret it, bro,” Haliburton said in a guest appearance on Logan Paul's Impaulsive podcast, via NBC Sports.
Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers risked it all
There was no way that anything was going to keep Haliburton off the court for that fateful Game 7 against the Thunder as long as he could still stand on both feet. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, and surely enough, Haliburton was at the top of his game for the short period he played for the Pacers in that do-or-die contest — scoring nine points in seven minutes after drilling three threes.
There should not be anyone clowning the Pacers' decision to let Haliburton suit up. This is professional sports, after all, and the chance to win a championship, especially in a league as difficult as the NBA, does not come around often.
