A right Achilles tendon tear in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, unfortunately, ensured that Tyrese Haliburton did not play a single game this season, and the Indiana Pacers paid the price for it, as they cratered without their floor general.

The team ranked 29th in the NBA in scoring, averaging 111.3 points per game after ranking seventh the season before, and fell to 28th in offensive rating.

However, before the curtain came down on the Pacers for this season on Sunday, Haliburton walked to center court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to address the fanbase directly.

“It’s been a tough year, but we appreciate you guys showing up (and) showing love every game,” he said. “You guys are the best fans in the world. We appreciate you guys. And don’t get used to the Pacers not playing in April, May, and June.”

Haliburton’s comments come as Indiana finished second-to-last in the Eastern Conference standings, with only the Washington Wizards posting a worse record in the conference. The Pacers closed out their 2025-26 campaign with a 133-121 loss to the Detroit Pistons.

And while the season slipped away on the court, Tyrese Haliburton’s road to recovery gave fans the clearest reason to look ahead.

Tyrese Haliburton Recovery Updates After Achilles Injury

In December, in his first appearance as a player-contributor on Amazon Prime Video’s NBA Nightcap, Haliburton said he was approaching the six-month mark on his road to recovery and was doing everything outside of contact, intending to play one-on-one by the end of the month.

That progress picked up the following month as he told LeBron James on the Mind the Game podcast that he had begun playing full-court 4-on-4 games against team interns and some of the Pacers’ reserves, and that he was up 30 pounds since the final game of the 2025 season, with plans to carry some of that added muscle into the next year.

Having said that, the recovery hit a detour shortly after, in February, when Rick Carlisle confirmed that Haliburton had come down with shingles during the All-Star break, forcing him away from the team and slowing his rehab for nearly a month. Tyrese Haliburton did not return to the team until March 25.

Then, on April 8, he posted the milestone that Pacers fans had been waiting for, as Haliburton announced on X that he had played 5-on-5 for the first time since his Achilles surgery last June.

That being said, the 26-year-old is targeting a return to the floor by Opening Night of the 2026-27 season, and with a high draft pick incoming and the roster largely intact, Indiana’s rebuild is expected to be brief.

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Written by

Nandjee Ranjan

Edited by

Arvind Rao