Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton Opens Up About Moment He Tore Achilles in Finals

The Indiana Pacers came into Game 7 of the NBA Finals confident that they could walk out of Oklahoma City with the first NBA championship in franchise history.

Those hopes were dashed just seven minutes into the game when Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles. Once that happened, the Pacers' title chances went out the window.

Haliburton understood that in the moment, which is why he was so animated right when the injury happened. In his first public interview since the injury, he talked about what was going through his mind right after the injury.

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While speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, Haliburton detailed what he was thinking while he was on the floor in Game 7.

"You always hear people who have this injury say it feels like somebody kicked you in the back of the leg. It's not the most painful thing, but it does feel like if you let some elementary-age kid just come up and line you up like a kickball and just kick you in the back of the leg. That's what it feels like. When I went down, I knew right away what had happened."

Haliburton knew that there was a chance that this was going to happen. When he hurt his calf after Game 5, there was a large amount of concern that this could happen in one of the next two games.

While he was perfectly fine in the blowout Game 6 win, Haliburton's Achilles was not able to withstand the start of Game 7. It was a risk that he was willing to take in order to try to win a title.

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Indiana will now play without Haliburton for all of next season as he recovers from the injury. It doesn't seem that he has regrets for playing through the calf injury.

Haliburton also mentioned during the interview that there is no guarantee that he will get back to the NBA Finals, so he wanted to leave it all out on the court. That's exactly what he did.

This past season, Haliburton averaged 18.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 9.2 assists per game. He shot 47.3 percent from the field and 38.8 percent from three.

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