Doctors Told Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton He Had Low Chance of Rupturing Achilles After Calf Injury

The Indiana Pacers were one game away from winning an NBA championship. Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles just seven minutes into Game 7, ending any hope they had of doing so.

Despite leading at halftime, there was no chance they were going to be able to sustain that effort to win the game. Haliburton decided to play in the game despite having a strained calf.

Now, Haliburton will miss the entire 2025-26 season because of that injury. Haliburton wanted to play in that game, and the doctors apparently didn't think he was at risk of suffering that injury.

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While speaking for the first time since the season ended, Kevin Pritchard told reporters that the doctors thought there was a "low chance" of Haliburton suffering an Achilles injury.

Pritchard acknowledged that he and the doctors had about 20 hours' worth of calls to determine if there was any enhanced risk of something like this happening.

In the end, Pritchard decided to let Haliburton play in Game 7.

“How do you tell a kid you can’t play in Game 7 after you played in Game 6 and didn’t (get injured)? He’s told me many times, and this just shows you what kind of kid he is, ‘I would do it over and over.’ And if you’re asking me if I would have him do it over and over? I would not. If I knew he was gonna get hurt, I would sacrifice that game because I care for the kid so much and I want him to have an incredible career."

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Pritchard also mentioned that they didn't think that Haliburton would get hurt after he played in Game 6. The Pacers thought that they were out of the woods at that point since he got through that game.

That ended up not being the case, and now Haliburton will lose a year of his career to this devastating injury. Pacers fans will never know if the team would have won the title if he had stayed healthy for that game.

This past season, Haliburton averaged 18.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 9.2 assists per game.

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