Tyrese Haliburton knows he’s persevered in return to Indiana Pacers

NEW ORLEANS — All 6-foot-6 and 277 pounds of Zion Williamson accidentally yet violently knocked Tyrese Haliburton into the air before he collided hard into the scorer’s table Wednesday night.

After collecting himself for a few seconds in his long-awaited return from a torn Achilles tendon injury, the Indiana Pacers star got up from the hardwood with a sly grin. Haliburton kept playing.

He was truly back.

“The thing that has made me feel most like normal was falling and our whole team not panicking,” Haliburton told Andscape after a 123-120 season-opening win over the Pelicans. “That has made me feel the most normal. I also had to breathe a little bit because I was tired as hell.”

Pacers fan or not, NBA followers panicked when Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon in a deciding Game 7 loss of the 2025 NBA Finals nearly 16 months ago. The injury-plagued Pacers then went from 2025 Eastern Conference champions to a dismal 19-63 record without Haliburton last season. While Haliburton watched and rehabbed, the rival New York Knicks won their first championship since 1973.

On Wednesday night, an admittedly gassed Haliburton was finally back. The 26-year-old scored 16 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and had 12 assists in 33 minutes as the Pacers held on to beat the Pelicans on the road. Afterward, Haliburton was brought to tears of joy after seeing Pacers fans celebrating the moment at Smoothie King Center.

“The best part was the end and that moment,” Haliburton said. “The press were there. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster. I’m telling you, what made me feel that way was seeing all those Pacers fans here in New Orleans. That was special.”

Haliburton is a two-time NBA All-Star and won a gold medal with USA Basketball in the 2024 Paris Olympics. What was missing from his basketball resume was an NBA championship, which Indiana also has never won. With that coveted prize in mind, Haliburton bravely continued to play in the 2025 Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder despite having a right calf injury.

The risk he took reared its ugly head as he tore his right Achilles tendon in the first quarter of Game 7. The Thunder won the game and their first NBA championship.

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Jamahl Mosley, serving as head coach of the Orlando Magic at the time, and his two young sons, C.J. and Chance, were in attendance at that Game 7.

“He was playing at such an elite level at that moment, fearless,” Mosley said of Haliburton. “That’s what happened in that moment; your heart breaks for him. And then you see what Oklahoma City was able to go on and do. …

“[My sons], they were hurt. Obviously, they’re just watching the game as just fans of basketball. And they don’t like to see anybody injured at all. But the reality is, this is part of the game.”

Haliburton, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard, had reconstructive surgery on his right Achilles tendon June 23, 2025. He transitioned from a walking boot late that summer and began taking part in light shooting drills in September 2025. Haliburton missed the 2025-26 season in recovery.

The Pacers’ record last season was the worst in franchise history. Meanwhile, watching his team not only lose but be criticized without him pained Haliburton all season.

“There have been some dog days, especially last [season] watching my team struggle without being able to help,” Haliburton said. “That was hard. I’d never been through that before. I just didn’t understand. A lot of the commentary was, ‘When Tyrese gets back. … Well, they are missing Tyrese.’ It’s all about Tyrese, Tyrese, Tyrese, and those guys are going through a lot, too. It was hard for them, too.

“I was just frustrated that I wasn’t able to play and it was made about me when we were going through this as a group. It wasn’t just me with what happened last [season].”

During Haliburton’s injury layoff, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said he was still one of the team’s main leaders last season.

“He was traveling with us most of the time last [season] until the shingles happened,” Carlisle said. “And there were a couple of situations where he didn’t travel that may have been related to … a doctor’s appointment or something like that. But he’s still one of the main leaders of the team. It’s him and Pascal [Siakam].

“And so [Haliburton] was going to stay connected. And it was not any kind of hard sell from me or anybody on our staff to convince him to do it. He was all in. He was aware that staying connected even through a tough year where there’s rehab and all those kinds of things was going to be important.”

To make recovery even more challenging, Haliburton was diagnosed with a severe case of shingles in February of this year. It caused severe swelling, nerve pain, eyebrow hair loss, eye issues and weight loss. John Haliburton, Tyrese Haliburton’s father, said his son used determination and his faith in God in his “career reset.”

“He had shingles. That is something everyone can catch,” the elder Haliburton told Andscape. “You catch it, it comes and it goes, and it affected him different. God is good, and we got past it. Now, when it comes down to his injury and stuff, that was very devastating. He was just shut down a for a bit, and he was determined. You can see his desire to come back. So, he did what he’s supposed to do.

“He’s back, so it was very easy because he was born and raised that way to have that faith in God and belief in God. Patience. See God is real. Hey, I know you hear the words, ‘God is real. God is good.’ And you have to believe in God. And when you take that step, you see what God does for you.”

Tyrese Haliburton also revealed that two athletes had the biggest impact in his recovery: WWE legend Triple H and Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray.

Haliburton is a huge WWE fan and is close to Triple H, who returned to action just eight months after tearing his hamstring off the bone during a match in May 2001. To honor and thank Triple H, Haliburton wore a denim and leather jacket to Wednesday’s game similar to the one worn by Triple H when he returned from a torn quad in January 2002.

Murray tore his right Achilles about five months before Haliburton, on Jan. 31, 2025, while playing in a home game for the Pelicans. Though they were previously more colleagues than close friends, Haliburton said he was in constant contact with Murray after the Game 7 injury, receiving advice on how to recover. Haliburton said he even asked Murray for advice during Wednesday’s game.

“We got really close during [my rehab],” Haliburton said. “He saw me as someone who was going through it, too. We talked a lot previously in games. He was a guy I guarded a lot when he was in Atlanta. It speaks to his character. It speaks to the man he is.

“Even during the game today, I said, ‘Hey man, how long does it take to get my wind back?’ He said, ‘It will talk a while, dog. Stay positive. It’s going to be OK.’ I don’t want to say he’s a big brother or anything. I got those. But he’s a brother, for sure. There is a camaraderie in the NBA, and the Achilles stuff has made a lot of us get closer.”

Haliburton said once he recovered from shingles, he started playing with his teammates again and began regaining his confidence. The Pacers’ players, coaches and training staff also helped him gain confidence by not panicking when he fell during basketball workouts. Haliburton proclaimed he was 100 percent and healthy with no restrictions during Pacers media day on Sept. 28.

The former Iowa State star returned to action in the preseason with seven points in 16 minutes against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Oct. 11 in a homecoming-type game at his alma mater. Two days later, he scored 24 points in 24 minutes a preseason game against the Thunder in Oklahoma City, his first contest there since the 2025 NBA Finals. He capped his preseason with 17 points in 20 minutes against Milwaukee on Oct. 16, another sign of optimism that he was 100 percent ready.

Through the rehab, Haliburton found appreciation in his ascension and pride in once going from a lowly recruited high school player from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Iowa State to NBA stardom.

“I know I’ve persevered,” Haliburton said. “The biggest thing of understanding for me is that I’m not this five-star [high school recruit] who had it easy to get to the NBA. The last couple of years, it might have looked like that because I’ve been put on this pedestal now. It’s kind of like starting from ground zero for me. But people think I’m going to come back and be just as good if not better. I’ve been trying to prove that to myself every day. It’s kind of fun for me to get back to my roots. …

“What I missed the most was the mundane things of the NBA. The practice, the 5-0 [practice drills), the plane rides with my teammates, the postgame recaps on the bus, the scuffles on the court, the talking to a fan — like, the little things you don’t think about. That is what I love about NBA basketball.”

The Pacers loved what they saw from Haliburton in his return to NBA basketball, too. He had a double-double, a dunk in traffic with a foul, a couple of three-point plays, and some trash-talking that led to a technical foul he says wasn’t warranted and should be rescinded.

Unquestionably, the old Tyrese is back.

“He looked great. I told him it would take some time to get back to his shape,” Siakam, who scored a game-high 30 points against the Pelicans, told Andscape. “His shape is amazing with the pace and everything we play like. But the first game back, I’m just happy for him to be back on the floor. I know how hard last [season] was for him.”

Said Carlisle: “Tyrese played extremely well. It’s the first time he played over 30 minutes in 16½ months.”

Along with the fan support, Haliburton also felt much-needed love from family, friends and important business colleagues who were in New Orleans.

Haliburton was supported by his parents, John and Brenda, and his wife, Jada, whom he married over the offseason, and other family members. Also in attendance were Haliburton’s agent Aaron Mintz, shooting coach Drew Hanlen, marketing representative Kristina Kozica and other friends. And there were many other Pacers fans there to support him.

“My people flew out here. I think there was 12 people on the [private] plane,” Haliburton said. “My best friend, my brothers, my parents, my wife, my trainer — mostly everybody. I think it was important for everybody to be there, and they wanted to be there for me. It just means a lot.”

After supporting Haliburton through his painful recovery, it was important for his family and loved ones to be there for his return.

“This is his first game back, and this will give us the opportunity to share this with him,” John Haliburton said. “Believe it or not, it’s very emotional for him inside. I know he played in the preseason. It’s an emotional state in his heart and his mind to realize and see that God put his life on the court, and he’s back.

“So that itself is something that we all want to share. We just had to share. We just had to be here. It just had to happen. We weren’t going to let him do this alone. Just like when he got injured, we was all there. So now that he’s back; we’re going to share that, too.”

Haliburton cried tears of joy after his return to action, as Pacers fans brought the emotion out of him. Next up is his home opener Friday against the Dallas Mavericks. The last time he played at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis was June 19, 2025, the 108-91 Game 6 win over the Thunder that forced Game 7.

Haliburton expects to be emotional again.

“That game is going to mean a lot,” he said. “I thought that was the time that I would get emotional. But like I said in my statement when I got hurt, Pacers fans didn’t deserve the way [the 2025 NBA Finals] ended. They’ve been through a lot. …

“A lot of stuff has happened. Unlucky. So, I just promised the city that I have their back and they have mine. And that’s just how I feel. It’s going to mean a lot to see all those people in the stands.”