It has been a month since Indiana Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton had surgical procedure to restore a torn Achilles he suffered throughout Sport 7 of the NBA Finals. It was a devastating blow for the Pacers, who took the eventual champion Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder the gap regardless of many individuals anticipating the collection to be a sweep. It is an damage that may certainly go away very many Pacers followers questioning “what if” as Indiana may’ve had an excellent shot at successful that sport and the title if Haliburton hadn’t gone down.

Haliburton will miss the whole lot of subsequent season as he rehabs, and regardless of the intestine punch that the damage is, he appeared to be in good spirits when showing on “The Pat McAfee Present” on Tuesday. The Olympic gold medalist shared that lately Kevin Durant dropped by his home to speak with him as the 2 have a brand new shared expertise.

“It is humorous, Ok.D. has mentioned he is bored with being the Achilles man,” Haliburton mentioned. “However I feel it is simply the way it needed to occur, as a result of not many guys have been in a position to come again and play at such a excessive stage. He is been type of the poster little one of that in our sport, so I feel it is easy for all of us to only attain out to him.”

Durant suffered an Achilles damage in the course of the 2019 NBA Finals. Like Haliburton, Durant’s damage state of affairs started as a calf pressure earlier than turning into the far more collection Achilles tear. Durant missed the 2019-20 season, however has continued to function at an All-NBA stage since. As Haliburton mentioned, Durant’s just about been the prime instance of having the ability to come again from an damage that may sometimes alter a participant’s profession considerably.

“Ok.D. really got here and visited me the opposite day, got here to my home which was fairly cool,” Haliburton mentioned. “We sat down for some time, simply talked and that was fairly cool. I feel that for me it is nearly attempting to get my psychological proper. That is why I am attempting to — you already know I am going to all of the [Indiana] Fever video games, I attempt to simply work out issues to do to maintain my thoughts off issues. I obtained an amazing village, an amazing assist system in my household and my pals, and I am simply doing every little thing I can.”

“Once I’m alone — which is not a ton — I sit there and take into consideration every little thing that is occurred and it is like, that sucks. It genuinely sucks. I am gonna struggle like hell to get again, and hopefully have this chance to win a championship once more, however that is not assured. I feel that feeling sits with me typically and that sucks, however I am unable to actually management the previous or what’s to occur sooner or later. All I can do is assault this rehab one of the best I can and determine it out that method.”

With Haliburton sidelined, the Pacers’ outlook subsequent season has dramatically shifted. This was a crew that most likely had an amazing probability of getting again to the Finals previous to his damage, and now they’re trying like a play-in crew or even perhaps a lottery-bound squad now that Myles Turner signed with the Milwaukee Bucks. Dropping him in that Sport 7 harm on a number of ranges as Haliburton mentioned there isn’t any assure that he and the present iteration of the Pacers will discover themselves in that place once more.

Wanting forward, it will be a protracted journey for Haliburton to get again on an NBA courtroom. However when he does it can definitely be a really heat, loud welcoming from Pacers followers who’re little doubt counting down the times till he fits up within the navy and gold once more.