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After Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton suffered an Achilles injury early into Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the team ultimately lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but arguably the biggest headline was around the status of the point guard. As the sports world has been reacting to the injury of the Pacers' point guard, there would be more insight from a key teammate on the team.
In the aftermath of Haliburton straining his calf in Game 5, playing through it in Game 6, he would suffer from a non-contact injury in the first quarter of Game 7 where when play stopped with just under five minutes left, everybody knew it was bad. One player who carried him off the court was James Johnson, who doesn't log a lot of minutes but is seen as the veteran leader in Indiana, as he said how “heartbreaking” it was, according to The Athletic.
“That was heartbreaking,” he said. “I know how hard he works, how bad he wanted it, and I know the hours he puts in, day in and day out. … Just to even be here was an honor, to sit courtside and help cheer on these guys was an honor, man. There’s a group character that’s hard to find. KP (Pritchard) and (Pacers general manager) Chad (Buchanan) did a great job of putting this group together, and getting high-character guys.”
Pacers ‘hearts dropped' when seeing Tyrese Haliburton's injury
With the painful ending to the Pacers' season in many facets, Haliburton will no doubt be hungry, along with the rest of the team, to head into the offseason determined to get back to the NBA Finals. Still, it's valid to digest the situation on Sunday night as sad, an event that made Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle's heart drop, as he said.
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“What happened with Tyrese is, all of our hearts dropped,” Carlisle said. “He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA, with dramatic play after dramatic play. It was just something that no one’s ever seen. And did it as one of 17 (players). That’s the beautiful thing about him.”
There's no doubt that the Pacers were one of, if not the most exciting, team in the postseason this year, getting huge series wins over the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the New York Knicks to get to the NBA Finals. Even pushing the series to seven games against Oklahoma City showed the fortitude they had as Myles Turner would he will miss the “process.”
“It was special,” Turner said. “Just everything we’ve been through to get to this point, everything that went into it … a journey at that. We talk about the process a lot, not necessarily the end goal, but the process. I’m going to miss the process of this group.”
At any rate, Indiana looks to improve after finishing 50-32, which put them fourth in the Eastern Conference.
