Tyrese Haliburton's Update On His Achilles Injury & Shingles Diagnosis...

0:00 What the hell are they Thursday, May 7th, [music] 2026?

0:03 This sports program begins now.

0:06 Sports!

0:07 Are happening.

0:08 Holy hell, that was fantastic.

0:11 I think that's an indicator of how today is going to go.

0:13 We have a guest host alongside of us here

0:15 in the Thunderdome on this glorious What the Halley Thursday.

0:18 And it couldn't be a better time for this man to be joining us

0:20 cuz obviously we're in the middle of some hot cooking in the NBA playoffs.

0:25 The Knicks continue to do what the Knicks are going to do.

0:27 I guess that's an unstoppable force over there in New York.

0:30 And then the Spurs answer and Wemby says,

0:32 "Hold on." Everybody's talking about Ant-Man.

0:34 Perk said, "If we lose game two,

0:36 we're going to get swept." They come back and beat the hell

0:38 out of the Timber Wagons in the NBA playoffs is only heating up.

0:42 And just 1 year ago, the man that we were riding alongside

0:45 of in the NBA playoffs all the way to the finals,

0:48 game seven, in which he was going to score 50 to 60 points,

0:54 Yeah.

0:54 become an NBA champion, Mhm.

0:56 and stamp his name in the history of holy hell, what the Halley is that guy on?

1:03 Some real clutch[ __] Ladies and gentlemen,

1:04 Indiana Pacer legend, Iowa State Cyclone, Tyrese Haliburton.

1:09 Hey, Tyrese.

1:11 Appreciate it.

1:11 Appreciate it.

1:12 see you, man.

1:12 I'm the only one to clap.

1:13 They did choose not to clap.

1:15 true.

1:14 That's okay.

1:14 They they like chanted.

1:15 They they were loud.

1:16 At the toxic table, at Boston Connor, and one half of the Hammer, Dodd.

1:20 Cowboy's toxic tone.

1:21 What do you got going on there, pal?

1:22 Well, I I don't have any masks, but I don't know if he's contagious or not, so

1:27 That's unbelievable.

1:27 What's wrong with this guy?

1:28 That is unbelievable.

1:29 All right, let's address it.

1:31 Let's address Let's address it immediately, okay?

1:33 We we have seen a masked world before,

1:36 and I'm not liking what I'm hearing, okay?

1:39 And I hunt uh am not [laughter] uh certainly a hunted in on that one,

1:45 but uh you your current recovery from uh the Achilles

1:49 tear in game seven of the NBA finals last year,

1:53 obviously gets hit with quite a speed bump, if you will, called uh shingles.

1:56 Can we open up a little bit about more about that?

1:58 Are you still currently in the middle of that?

2:00 How is your rehab?

2:01 Did uh shingles slow down the rehab?

2:03 Like, how do you kind of piece it all together now in your story of recovery?

2:07 Yeah, I was starting to play five-on-five, and then uh got shingles,

2:09 that kind of stopped things, you know, for like 3 weeks.

2:12 And so, that kind of halted things for a little bit,

2:15 but I'm getting back there now.

2:16 Uh just started playing five-on-five again as the summer's going on, and uh

2:19 we got like a little team mini camp here in a couple weeks,

2:21 and I'll be full go for that.

2:22 So, it it sucks for a little bit, but I'm good now.

2:24 How do you feel uh playing five-on-five?

2:26 Do you feel like yourself?

2:27 Is there like uh mental hurdles you have to get

2:29 over cuz like when I had a knee surgery or something,

2:31 especially in my kicking knee,

2:32 which is vastly different than your life cuz you got to run,

2:34 I just got to kick every once in a while.

2:36 Uh mentally, I didn't want to blow my[ __]

2:37 back out for like the first like month.

2:39 And there was a little bit of pain

2:40 coming back because you're working things back into it.

2:42 My biggest issue was like the fear of tearing it again or breaking it again.

2:46 Do you have that mental block that's taking place?

2:48 And with what Tatum's doing, does that help everything with you?

2:51 Yeah, for sure.

2:51 Seeing him and Dejounte Murray was having a lot of success, you know,

2:54 for the end of the at the end of the year as well.

2:56 Uh no, I don't really think about it.

2:57 I think the biggest thing is like defensively,

2:59 I could tell like I'm a step behind.

3:01 I'm not a great defender already, you know?

3:03 But I'm I'm playing playing against interns,

3:06 and I'm like, why is this guy kind of [laughter]

3:08 he's fighting me a little bit here.

3:10 Uh so, it's just the the process of like planting and turning, those things.

3:14 But offensively, when I'm in control of my movement, I feel great.

3:17 Defensively, where we're reacting to others,

3:19 that's where uh it's going to get better as time goes on.

3:21 Okay, we got nothing but time.

3:22 Obviously, these NBA playoffs are still happening.

3:24 The Pacers are in a fair an okay position to potentially

3:26 get another legend to come join us here in Indiana.

3:29 This season has not gone anywhere near as well as last season went.

3:32 Did we find ourselves maybe not paying attention as much

3:35 to the NBA this year because you weren't playing?

3:37 No.

3:38 No.

3:39 No.

3:40 We wouldn't do that.

3:42 That is not how this show operates.

3:44 But on that note, we enjoyed the hell out of it last year,

3:46 and we're finding these storylines of this year that are fantastic as well.

3:49 Whenever you watch what happened down in San

3:51 Antonio with response to what Ant-Man did and Wemby.

3:54 I think the big thing about Wemby is he's a savage, right?

3:56 We need to be looking at him as a guy who loses in the playoffs

3:58 at home is going to come back pissed off on the other side.

4:01 Like, what do you think is kind of misconstrued

4:03 about the big tall man from France that's unbelievable?

4:05 Well, I think San Antonio being uh you know, the higher seed,

4:08 a team that when you lose a game like game one,

4:10 you expect them to come back and respond.

4:12 And respond is what they did last night.

4:14 That didn't surprise me at all.

4:15 And you you look at like game one, Minnesota made a lot of tough shots.

4:19 A lot of tough shots.

4:20 So, going into game two, uh you know, like a guy like Wemby,

4:23 the paint is kind of like it's not really a thing when Wemby's on the floor.

4:27 It's kind of like when you go in there,

4:28 you expect to probably get a shot blocked.

4:30 So, like you got to make jumpers to beat San Antonio at a high level.

4:33 And uh Minnesota didn't do that last night.

4:35 So, that's why the score looked like the way it did.

4:37 Can the next one at this year or no?

4:39 You said you watch every single game.

4:40 Is it different than last year, you know,

4:41 whenever you ran into the big bad wolf,

4:43 the Indiana Pacers, you know, Tyrese Haliburton's now sitting on this show.

4:45 He's not in the playoffs, which I mean Hi Tyrese.

4:47 How are you?

4:48 What's up, Ben?

4:49 How you doing?

4:50 I mean, I was there, as you know, like, you know,

4:53 last year when when Tyrese hit the shot that changed everything.

4:58 And I had the bad luck of being, you know, sitting under the celebration.

5:03 You know, under this.

5:05 And then after then like making like eye contact with Myles Turner.

5:09 Like just it was so weird.

5:11 [laughter] It was so weird and it was just so scary and weird.

5:14 I was like, I don't This is the one time I don't want these seats.

5:18 [laughter] Cuz it was just We were It was your glory moment there.

5:20 There's a There's a video going around saying you're a super genius.

5:22 You know that?

5:23 Yeah, great montage.

5:24 Did your people put that together, probably?

5:26 I have no idea what video you're Is that a Puma thing?

5:27 What video are you talking about?

5:28 It's They're talking about you being a super high IQ basketball player.

5:32 You saw it?

5:32 Yeah, just all great plays from like just one playoff run last year.

5:36 Well, I think I'm pretty smart basketball player.

5:38 I think so, too.

5:38 Have you uh heightened that from sitting out

5:41 for a year at this level of your game?

5:42 Like, what do you think you're going to take

5:43 away of this year uh having watched the game?

5:46 You know what I've seen more anything is why

5:48 coaches think the way that they do on certain things.

5:50 You know, like when a guy uh when a guy is like,

5:53 "Challenge that." And you're like, and and you know, as a player,

5:56 it's hard not to like you have a foul, you don't think it's a foul,

5:58 you're like, "Challenge it." Then you realize like, "It's the first quarter.

6:02 Does it really matter?

6:03 Stop being an idiot." You know, like I think that's kind of helped a little bit.

6:06 I see it from coach perspective a little more.

6:07 Okay, I like that.

6:08 You're a little bit more of a um How about your leadership?

6:12 Will that change your leadership style, you think?

6:14 Uh not necessarily.

6:15 I think this year was hard though cuz

6:16 it's like when you're not playing, like you're like,

6:18 "Can I really say something?" Like what can I really say if I'm not playing?

6:22 But, you know, you figure it out cuz guys they know the work

6:25 that you put in, so it's not that big of a deal.

6:26 Well, how about Zubac?

6:27 I mean, there you had Myles Turner for a little while

6:30 and then that that went all that went especially with Milwaukee this year,

6:34 but how about them still like making moves for you basically for next year?

6:40 Cuz you know, this year went how it went even at the trade deadline.

6:43 I feel like the Pacers going to get Zubac was kind of out of left field,

6:46 but clearly they're like kind of still all the way behind you.

6:49 Like how good did that feel amidst you know,

6:52 one of the worst seasons the Pacers have

6:54 had that they're still kind of adding for you?

6:56 Yeah, well, I think that's exciting.

6:57 I think that he he brings a different dynamic

6:59 to our team than we've had in the past.

7:01 I think you guys are going to like Big Z a lot.

7:04 I like the name already.

7:05 Big Z is certainly something I like.

7:07 I like what the NBA is doing as a whole.

7:08 I like what the NHL is doing as a whole.

7:14 [music]