Tyrese Haliburton went from hero to zero, getting no credit from Emmanuel Acho for playing hurt, just blame for losing an NBA Finals game.
Haliburton may have had the worst NBA Finals performance by a star player in league history Monday night, and it resulted in the Indiana Pacers losing Game 5 of the series to the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-109. His four point performance on 0-6 shooting from the field wasn’t for a lack of effort, with Haliburton battling through a calf injury to stay on the floor, but Acho was not impressed.
“The most selfish thing I’ve seen Tyrese Haliburton do is try to play hurt…He tried to be a hero. And what you did last night was put the whole L on your back.”
— @EmmanuelAcho pic.twitter.com/8nKSPOj1ev
— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) June 17, 2025
“I’m not going to applaud you for playing hurt,” Acho ranted Tuesday morning on FS1’s The Facility. “The most selfish thing I’ve seen Tyrese Haliburton do is try to play hurt. Because he tried to be a hero. Often times in basketball, in sports and even in this culture, we have this machismo alpha male idea of ‘I’m gonna put the whole team on my back.’ No. What you did last night was put the whole L on your back, Tyrese Haliburton.”
Acho went on to note T.J. McConnell, who would have been in the game if Haliburton was benched, was one of the only Pacers with a legitimately positive plus-minus Monday night.
“But you, Tyrese Haliburton, thought that you were going to be a god, you were going to be a hero,” Acho said. “You said that if you could walk, you were going to walk onto that court. You should have walked your butt to the back end of the bench, is what you should have done.”
“I’m not going to applaud you for playing hurt,” he continued. “You said you wanted to do anything you could to help your team win, what you could have done in that moment was to sit down because you weren’t helping anybody do anything except the Oklahoma City Thunder to win that game.”
No one is applauding anything about Haliburton’s Game 5 performance. The injury may have lessened some of the criticism he’s receiving, but make no mistake, this will still be remembered as one of the worst games from a star in Finals history. And despite Haliburton being Indiana’s best player and one of the most clutch performers in these NBA Playoffs, it’s hard to argue they wouldn’t have been better off with more minutes from T.J. McConnell.
But doesn’t that responsibility fall on head coach Rick Carlisle? It’s not Haliburton’s responsibility to take himself out. He’s a competitor who should always want to play and should always believe his next shot is going to go in. Imagine the morning after narratives if Haliburton asked out of the game. Just last month, Stephen A. Smith was on ESPN ripping Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland for missing playoff games against the Pacers with a toe injury.
Play hurt and get ripped for being selfish. Or sit on the bench with an injury and get ripped for being soft. Unless Haliburton finds a way to be a dominant player in a winning effort, sports media will find a way to be critical.