Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of NBA Finals

By Kyle Feldscher, CNN

(CNN) — Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn right Achilles tendon during Sunday night’s Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the team confirmed Monday after the point guard underwent an MRI.

“Surgery is scheduled later today with Dr. Martin O’Malley at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York,” the Pacers said in a statement.

The team said it will offer further updates on Haliburton’s status at a later time.

The news – first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania – builds on what Haliburton’s father told ESPN’s broadcast during the game, which was that the point guard had suffered an Achilles injury.

Haliburton’s injury was a brutal moment. Starting the game with three 3-pointers, Haliburton was talking trash to the Oklahoma City crowd, bouncing around like a ball of energy and looked ready to put his team on his back in the biggest game of his life.

But with about five minutes to go in the first quarter, he made a quick move and planted his right foot onto the court. In slow-motion replays that were eventually shown repeatedly throughout the broadcast, the snap of his Achilles tendon was clearly visible, and he crumpled to the floor.

Haliburton immediately looked distraught, pounding the court and appearing to yell, “No!” repeatedly. Adding to the pain of the moment was the fact that Haliburton had said after a dominant Indiana win in Game 6 that he wasn’t going to let an injury stop him from playing and that he knew the risks – but wanted to play on the biggest stage.

“I want to be on the floor, and if I have the ability to, if I can – like I said, if I can walk, I want to be out there,” Haliburton said after Game 6. “I just want to be out there with my brothers to compete. Yeah, those guys have my back, and I feel like I have theirs at the same time. You know, that was important for me.”

The look on Haliburton’s face as he was treated on the floor said it all. Much as when Kevin Durant ruptured his Achilles in the 2019 NBA Finals, he appeared to know his night – and potentially all of the 2025-2026 season – was done. He was helped off the court with a towel covering his head.

For a time, his team rallied without their star. The Thunder and their fans at Paycom Center actually appeared to be the ones most affected by the injury as the eventual champions looked flat and listless for much of the second quarter while the Pacers played inspired ball.

“You just hate to see it in sports in general, but in this moment, my heart dropped for him. I couldn’t imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. It’s not fair. But competition isn’t fair sometimes,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder star who would be named the Finals MVP.

But after the halftime break, the adrenaline wore off for Indiana and the Thunder returned to their normal, world-beating selves. A massive third quarter sparked a romp to victory for OKC as the Pacers could only be left wondering what might have been if Haliburton had been out on the floor.

It was clear how much the game took out of the Pacers as they came off the floor following the game. Haliburton was shown on crutches, hugging his teammates as they came off the floor. Multiple Pacers were in tears as the emotions poured out.

“We needed Ty out there. He’s been good for us all year, and for him to go down in the beginning of the game like that, it’s like it sucked the soul out of us,” Pacers forward Obi Toppin said.

Said Indiana star forward Pascal Siakam: “He did some incredible things, like this whole playoff run and this year, and yeah, like I’m just super proud of him. Obviously, it hurts because we couldn’t get it done, and I wanted it so bad for him just because I know that he gave us everything, you know, everything he had. It just hurts that he couldn’t see it through with us.”

Haliburton was the key to the Pacers’ impressive playoff run, hitting big shots over and over as Indiana looked undeniable at points. He produced one of the signature moments of the playoffs in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals as he led the Pacers on a massive comeback in the final minutes against the New York Knicks, eventually hitting a tying shot as the buzzer sounded to send the game to overtime – and mimicked Reggie Miller’s famous “choke” celebration on the Madison Square Garden floor. Indiana eventually won that game in overtime.

In the Finals, he recreated those heroics by helping to engineer a comeback win over the Thunder on the road in Game 1. He hit a mid-range jumper with 0.3 seconds to go in the game to give Indiana its only lead, stealing the series opener on the road.

After being named the most overrated player in the league by his peers earlier in the season, Haliburton seemed to be on a mission to prove all the doubters wrong in the playoffs. He also hit game-winning shots to beat the Milwaukee Bucks and Cleveland Cavaliers in the earlier rounds.

“I can’t imagine how he’s feeling. He’s having an amazing run to even get to this point, and for it to end like that, it’s heartbreaking,” Pacers center Myles Turner said.

Haliburton now faces a long layoff that tosses the Eastern Conference next year into uncertainty. Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard and Boston Celtics lynchpin Jason Tatum also suffered the same injury during these playoffs, and it’s unknown how their teams will react to the long-term injuries.

This story has been updated with additional details.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.