NBA FINALS: THUNDER VS. PACERS

June 19, 2025

Tyrese Haliburton

Indiana Pacers

Game 6: Postgame

Indiana Pacers 108, Oklahoma City Thunder 91

Q. Tyrese, obviously a lot of talk about your calf, and you had to decide whether to play or not, things like that. But you are an inherently unselfish player and imagine your parents raised you to be unselfish as a person, but how much selfishness is good selfishness to have as a high-level athlete?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: I just look at it as I want to be out there to compete with my brothers. These are guys that I'm willing to go to war with and we've had such a special year, and we have a special bond as a group, and you know, I think I'd beat myself up if I didn't give it a chance.

I just want to be out there and fight and just had to have an honest conversation with Coach that, you know, if I didn't look like myself and was hurting the team, like sit me down. Obviously, I want to be on the floor. But I want to win more than anything.

So had an honest conversation with Coach. But yeah, I want to be on the floor, and if I have the ability to, if I can -- like I said, if I can walk, I want to be out there. I just want to be out there with my brothers to compete. Yeah, those guys have my back and I feel like I have theirs at the same time. You know, that was important for me.

Q. This team has never been this close to an NBA championship in its history. You've talked with Reggie about how much that would mean to you personally. How do you weigh that over the next 48, 72 hours, with the focus it's going to need to win in their place in Game 7?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: Yeah, just not trying to look at it from like a big picture thing. Not trying to look at it in that way necessarily. We've got one game. One game. It's nothing that's happened before matters, and nothing that's going to happen after matters. It's all about that one game. Just trying to approach it the right way for the next couple days.

It's going to be -- the narratives are going to be almost poison, you know, to talk about what this would mean to our city and our organization and legacy talk and we played so well and now the pressure it on. Like, you know what I mean? There's going to be narratives that we can't really pay attention to.

We've got to control what we can. So much of these games has come down to who is going to start the fight from a physicality standpoint, take care of the ball better and rebound the ball better and those are the important things that we need to focus on. I don't even want to say, you know, celebrate this one tonight and move on.

It's done with. We did our job to take care of home court, and we have to be ready to compete in Game 7.

Q. You talked about just when you felt like yourself or not. How close or how far did you feel to yourself, and how long did it take you to adjust to whatever you were dealing with and had to compensate for and what do you feel like you managed to kind of put together to just figure out to deal with the calf muscle?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: I don't know, that's for you guys to analyze as far as what you think about how I performed. Just trying to come out and impact the game in any way I could. Still trying to be who I am at the same time but obviously I'm dealing with something.

But you know, nobody cares. They don't care. I don't care. So we've got to -- we took care of business today but you've got to get ready for Game 7. It's a really exciting time.

Q. You mentioned the narratives are going to be poison for you guys the next couple days, keep your focus here. I noticed on your social media, I think your last post was June 6, Game 1. Have you stayed off that all together? Have you been able to avoid much input coming to you from the outside world?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: I've tried my best. I've tried my best. I don't have the apps or anything. To be honest, sometimes I've got to log in to see what's going on with WWE or other stuff, honestly but trying to stay off as much as I can and just not pay attention to outside noise as much as I can, you know, as much as we can as a group.

So all that matters is the opinions of the guys in the locker room, and what our focus will be over these next 48 hours.

Q. You deleted the apps?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: Yeah, I deleted the apps. Correct.

Q. Can you walk us through the last 48 hours, where you've been, who has been with you as the round the clock treatment has proceeded, whether it was in the training room or at your house or wherever was are?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: I'm trying to think, after the game, went to sleep, woke up. Went to hyperbaric chamber, had an MRI. Had a meeting with a couple specialists and my agents and the organizations, and then the next day more treatment at the gym, more stuff at the gym, tried to get some shots yesterday. And then just around the clock, hyperbaric again and Carl and Justin have been at my house, coming and putting H-wave on me and doing a bunch of treatment on me that way.

And then this morning, hyperbaric again. Usually not a gameday hyperbaric person but just trying to give myself the best shot that I could coming into today. And then just more H-wave, more treatment at the house. We've got a lot of people who take care of me and we have an elite medical staff. So it's been good having those guys at the house helping wherever they can. My family has been on me. If they call me, they are like, are you doing treatment right now? I'm like, getting ready to play the game. Put something on leg. My family has been holding me accountable at the same time. Just trying to take care the best I could.

Q. At 10-15, and then you guys overcome that, and then supposed to lose to Cleveland; that didn't happen. You're dragging your leg the other night. When you look at everything, how crazy is it that there just one game left and you're in it?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: It's exciting, man. It's so, so, exciting. As a basketball fan, there's nothing like a Game 7. There's nothing like a Game 7 in the NBA Finals. Dreamed of being in this situation my whole life. So, to be here is really exciting. Really exciting for our group. Like I said, what happened in the past doesn't matter. What happened today doesn't matter. It's all about one game and approaching that the right way.

So everybody has to take care of their bodies. Go to a couple film sessions. Good preparation to get ready for that and let the cards fall where they may. It’s already written. We've worked our tails off to get here and we've just got to trust the work that we've put in, and yeah, man, I wouldn't want to go to battle with any other guys. I'm really excited about it.

Q. Just 14 months ago, you played your first playoff game and then you won a Gold Medal and then you've gone on to this right now. How much has all that experience prepared you for Sunday and Game 7?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: Yeah, I think every experience you go through as an athlete is a lesson. You can learn from everything, learn from the wins, learn from wins, learn from the losses and all those things are important. My journey has been fun -- excuse me, I'm not necessarily trying to give you guys a journey talk now. I'm trying to get prepared for Game 7. Maybe after that game is the time to reflect on what it's been like but yeah, it's really exciting.

Q. Just curious, it felt like everything did you today, whether it was pushing on the break, big shots, felt like the crowd and team felt more amped than usual, knowing what you've been going through and putting yourself through, did it feel like that to you? Did it feel like every shot, every assist that you had, got the crowd more amped than usual?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: I wouldn't say it's a Tyrese thing. I felt like the crowd was really excited for this game and rallied for our group and it was a do-or-die game, and as much as we didn't want to lose this game and see a celebration on our home floor. Our fans didn't want to see that, either.

There was a lot of energy, excitement, throughout our city, and that's a lot of fun. That's a lot of fun to be a part of. This has been a special, special thing to be a part of here in Indianapolis and yeah, man, it's been a lot of fun. Looking forward to Game 7.

Q. Last year, I believe we were in Utah and Bruce Brown let you see his championship ring for a couple minutes, what do you remember about that? And I guess what would it mean to you, Game 7, to be able to win one?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: Yeah, Bruce didn't let me see it often. He got it with us in Denver and then he got traded shortly after. I only got to see for a little bit.

I think I've been fortunate enough to play with some teammates who have been fortunate enough to win championships themselves. I feel like as a basketball fan, I consistently annoy those guys. Like Tristan Thompson is like my big brother and we got traded here together. As you guys know, I was a big Bron and Cavs fan, so the amount of questions that I asked about that run and about that time; it just goes down the line, as a basketball fan and wanting to know more about it. It's special now, to be creating our own run, it's a lot of fun, and obviously to win a championship would mean the world to me.

But we're not there yet. Still got a couple days and I'm looking forward to it.

Q. That steal and look to Pascal, what's going through your head on a play like that?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: I think energy plays are important in the game of basketball. Any time that you can create energy within the game, especially on your home floor, I was so tired after that. I was really hoping they would call a timeout but we had to get back out on defense.

That's a special moment especially because we are always getting on Pascal for not dunking anymore. That was cool to see.

Honestly me and Pascal have not spoken about this play yet. I don't know if we will until this over. But definitely a lot of fun, and if we are fortunate enough to go on and win this thing, I think that play will be remembered for a long time. Yeah, definitely a lot of fun.

Q. In all six games of this Finals so far, the team with more bench points ended up winning. As the leader of this team, how do you see the spark your bench gives and what does it say about the trust that you have collectively across the board?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: Yeah, I mean, all year we have just preached how important depth is to our success, and you know, I feel like we really believed in our second group. You know, they have been able to come in and pick up the energy when it's needed, when we are having good games, continue to keep the energy flowing.

Obviously, T.J. and Obi are kind of the head of that snake, you know, off the bench, and we've still got Shep and Ben and obviously Jarace is hurt right now and TB and Tony Bradley and we just have so many different guys that can chip in. That's the thing about the NBA and the playoffs you is never know when your number is going to be called. We have so many guys that are prepared for that moment, and yeah, I didn't actually know that stat. But that's interesting.

I think in the Finals, especially in our series right now, all these games are coming down to the margins. That's what's important, can you win the rebound battle, can you win the turnover battle, can you set the tone from a physicality standpoint. Those are all what's been very important through all these games and I feel like whoever has done that has won game.

So going into Game 7, it's just important for us to control the controllables, the effort stuff. That's going to be really important.