Tyrese Haliburton Returns After 472 Days in Iowa State Preseason Game
With the game decided in the fourth quarter, the Iowa State students began chanting for Tyrese Haliburton. He was on the bench in white sandals and socks, his basketball shoes back in the locker room, and he answered by pointing at his feet. The chant changed to “put your shoes on. ”Tyrese Haliburton's return came 472 days after the Achilles injury he suffered in the 2025 NBA Finals.
Tyrese Haliburton Returns to the Court After Achilles Injury
He had already played his 16 minutes at Hilton Coliseum, all of them in the first half. It was his first game in 472 days, since the first quarter of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals in Oklahoma City, where he tore his right Achilles. He had surgery in New York the next day. The Pacers lost that game to the Thunder, then went 19-63 without him in 2025-26, the worst record in franchise history.
He started, hit a jumper from the elbow in the opening minutes, and finished with 7 points on 3-of-8 shooting, 6 assists and 2 blocks. Afterward he said he had played too fast, with adrenaline doing some of the work, and called it “the loudest preseason game I’ve ever been a part of.” Asked whether he was tempted to go back in, he laughed and said no: the team has a process.
Haliburton Gets Emotional Homecoming at Iowa State
The building was full of students because of him. Haliburton, who played at Iowa State from 2018 to 2020, bought every ticket in the student sections behind both baskets. Micah Byars, the school’s director of basketball operations, told the Fieldhouse Files podcast: “He bought both end zones worth of tickets for everybody.” Iowa State ran a lottery, and more students asked than there were seats. They got in free and received Haliburton T-shirts, and he addressed the crowd before tip-off. Hilton Coliseum holds 14,267, and the game sold out.
Haliburton had said earlier in the week that nobody is as passionate about Iowa State as its current students, and he pointed out that many of them were kids when he played there. No figure for the number of tickets or their cost has been reported.
Pacers' Iowa State Game Was Delayed by Haliburton's Injury
The game was meant to happen a year earlier. The Pacers had planned a preseason game in Ames for 2025, then changed course after his injury, so the trip waited for him.
Haliburton's Recovery Continues Ahead of Pacers Season Opener
The recovery itself has been quieter. Haliburton went into camp with no restrictions, saying he had put in an “unbelievable amount of time.” On Sunday he played with the starters at the Pacers’ FanJam scrimmage; his side lost, leaving him 0-4 in the event, but he said it was the first FanJam he had left feeling good.
Coach Rick Carlisle called the night a special situation. Haliburton called Hilton his second home and said that after 472 days, being back on the floor was what mattered: “perspective is everything.” The Pacers open the regular season against New Orleans on October 21.
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