Indiana Pacers star point guard Tyrese Haliburton is set to make his return to the court from a torn Achilles in the team's season opener to kick off the season.
With the NBA finally releasing the schedule, the Pacers now know who that season opener will be against. Not only did the league not let Haliburton make his return in front of the home crowd in Indiana, they also aren't on national television and are instead playing on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Haliburton deserved more than that. After leading the Pacers to the NBA Finals prior to going down with the injury in Game 7 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, he deserved at least to make his return after missing 16 months on his home floor.
That is something the star pointed out during a recent appearance on the "Numbers on the Board" podcast.
“Name any other person that you compare to my level of a basketball player, wherever you have me ranked. If they tore their Achilles and missed 16 months, do you think that game would be on national television?" Haliburton said.
"Do you think that game would be at home, if not on national television? Do you think that that game would be at New Orleans? When I saw the schedule, I was like, ‘oh, wow,’ not to…. Shout out Trey Murphy III, love my boy, Trey. Love New Orleans. I was shocked to see that, but we moved on."
He makes a great point. The NBA absolutely did him dirty with the schedule, but the team and Haliburton have to move on from it and focus on picking up their first win of the year.
During the 2024-25 NBA season, Haliburton produced big numbers for Indiana. He played in 73 regular season games, averaging 18.6 points per game to go along with 9.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.4 steals. He also shot 47.3 percent from the floor and 38.8 percent from the three-point line.
Ahead of his highly-anticipated return, there are questions about what the Pacers should expect from Haliburton. Missing 16 months with such a serious injury can be tough to come back fully from.
Despite the question marks, Haliburton has remained focused on being better when he returns. He is hungry to bring Indiana its first NBA championship.
Hopefully, Haliburton is able to accomplish that goal this season. There would be nothing sweeter after missing so much time than coming back and leading the Pacers on another NBA Finals run, this time with a different final result.
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