Basketball fans around the world were swept away by the Indiana Pacers’ magical postseason run, and much of that was due to the unbelievably clutch play of Tyrese Haliburton. The Third Team All-NBA point guard was the breakout star of the playoffs, and he helped guide the Pacers to within a game of their first NBA championship.
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Haliburton battled through a strained calf in the Finals, and he devastatingly went down with a torn Achilles in Game 7 against the Thunder, an injury made even more heartbreaking by the fact that he came out red-hot with nine points in the first seven minutes of the game.
He’s now set to miss all of next season.
In a heartfelt post after he underwent surgery the next day, Haliburton expressed no regrets for gutting it out, saying, “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 was over two weeks ago, but the crew of FS1’s Speak was back on the topic yesterday after Pacers president Kevin Pritchard said he wouldn’t have played Haliburton in Game 7 if he could do it all over again.
Paul Pierce, Keyshawn Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh all agreed with Haliburton that there’s no way you can tell a competitor not to play, no matter the risk, when the top of the mountain is so close.
Pierce said, “Even if somebody said, ‘Hey, Paul, you’re gonna tear your Achilles tonight if you play in this game,’ but I got the chance to win a championship? It’s a no-brainer for me. I still woulda did it.”
Keyshawn concurred, and fittingly for a football player, he used a gridiron example to drive his point home. “Ronnie Lott cut off his finger to play in the Super Bowl. Just to play in the Super Bowl. So think about that. We’ll do what it takes to get to the ultimate prize, it is what it is.”
“We’ll worry about rehabbing later on, we’ll worry about what ifs later on. At the end of the day, we want to win a championship.”
Haliburton found out during the first round of the postseason that he had been voted the NBA’s most overrated player by his peers, but he went out and made them look foolish as he delivered again and again.
The league will be poorer without him next year, but he’s far from the only star who will be missing time with a torn Achilles. Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard and Dejounte Murray are also on the shelf, a fact that has sparked a debate about what the NBA can do to curb this epidemic.
If there’s one silver lining to Haliburton going down and saying he’d do it all over again, it’s proof of just how winning and being there for your teammates matter to these guys. NBA players have had a bad reputation for being in it only for the money and going through the motions. Maybe that’s true for some, but certainly not for Haliburton, and that’s why his star has risen so quickly.
Everyone around the NBA wishes Hali and those other injured players a speedy recovery, and we can’t wait to see what they’ll do once they return.
