One of the most heartbreaking sports occurrences in recent history took place in Game 7 of this past season’s NBA Finals. Tyrese Haliburton, the postseason hero who had carried the Indiana Pacers to within a game of the first title in franchise history, tore his Achilles in the season’s final game. That injury not only cruelly stole the Pacer’s best chance to win it all, it also torpedoed this coming season, as Haliburton will miss the entire year while he recovers.
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Through it all, Haliburton has remained remarkably upbeat. He shared a heartfelt message to social media after his successful surgery, and he’s still been plenty visible as he attends Indiana Fever games, promotes his signature shoe and takes part in various WWE events.
Haliburton has a passion for professional wrestling and has been an active part of the WWE universe for some time now. He stared down Knicks nemesis Jalen Brunson at Smackdown in June and has also appeared in the WWE 2K25 videogame. He even served as a guest analyst at ESPN’s Wrestlepalooza event last week, which took place at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the Pacers.
It would now seem Haliburton is also actively involved in the business side of things, with the launch of own WWE shirt. He even told WWE royalty, Stephanie McMahon on her What’s Your Story? podcast that John Cena, his favorite wrestler, was the inspiration behind it. Much like Haliburton, Cena too had to overcome an Achilles injury earlier in his career.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to put at the top,” he said, “and one of my friends was like why don’t you put ‘No time for what-ifs?’ ’cause John’s like ‘The time is now.'”
The shirt features a caricature of Haliburton doing his infamous Reggie Miller choke impersonation after he shocked the Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, and the message has a special meaning to him, given what he’s currently going through.
“For me, since I’ve gotten hurt,” he said, noting, “All I’ve heard is, ‘If you didn’t get hurt, if this happened, if that happened,’ and I think I’m just trying to be as forward-thinking as possible.”
“I don’t have time to think about what-if, I’m just trying to progress through my rehab as fast as I can, try to get through it as quick as I can, because I feel like the more I live in the past, the harder it is,” Haliburton added.
Haliburton admitted that when the injury first happened, he wasn’t so enlightened, but with time to reflect, he has a much better perspective on things. “I think I’ve felt every single emotion there is to feel at this point,” he said.
The Pacers aren’t rushing Haliburton back, which is a smart move. He’s already been ruled out for the year, which will give him plenty of time to get back to full health, but he’s planning on being even better when he returns for the 2026-27 season.
Haliburton said that he loves playing the heel, which is something he gets to do whenever he’s not in Indiana because he’s broken so many opposing fanbases’ hearts with his play. The rest of the Eastern Conference will be glad to get a one-year reprieve from him, but after that, the royal rumble is back on.
