Tyrese Haliburton already knows when and against whom he will play his first game in almost a year and a half. The guard, who hasn’t played since his Achilles tear in Game 7 of the 2025 Finals, will return to action on October 21, when the Pacers visit New Orleans, a matchup that will mark Indiana’s first game of the regular season and which has drawn far less interest than Haliburton had hoped.
And after an opening night featuring three big games, all broadcast on national television in the United States, his return to the court will be somewhat diluted on a night that hosts 11 games, of which ESPN, the national network that airs the NBA on Wednesdays, has chosen other offerings. Specifically, the trip to face the Timberwolves in Miami and the Lakers–Warriors showdown are drawing the attention of that date, leaving Tyrese in the background, a development that has surprised him.
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“Think of another player at my level, or whichever you consider, and imagine that the Achilles tear has kept them out for 16 months. Do you think their return would be broadcast on national television?” he stated on the podcast Numbers on the Board, where he also hinted that he expected to debut in other venues. “Do you think that game would be at least at home if it wasn’t broadcast on national television? Or do you think it would be in New Orleans?”
National television broadcasting may seem a somewhat arbitrary concept to those outside the United States who watch all games through League Pass regardless of who airs them, but in the host country it is indeed an important matter. It is, after all, a way of recognizing greater weight or significance for certain games or events, and it serves, in a sense, as a thermometer for which teams or players generate more interest or which ones the media tries to promote more aggressively.
And in that sense, Haliburton isn’t short of a point when he feels that, after terrifying the league with his comebacks and clutch baskets and coming up just short of the title last time he was able to play, his status as a top star of the league has faded somewhat during his absence.
