The Indiana Pacers will be hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Hilton Coliseum, home of the Iowa State Cyclones, for a preseason game. It comes as a return to the place where Tyrese Haliburton played for two years. From 2018-2020, that arena was Hali's home.
There is simply no way that Haliburton will miss this game, even if it's just a meaningless preseason game. That gives us the answer to when he will be returning.
Tyrese will be back on a Pacers' home court on October 7th, back where he showed off the skills that made him the 12th overall pick to the Sacramento Kings.
This is perhaps the cutest way this could've happened. A heartwarming rain of cheers will fall onto a player who has been through so much since he tore his Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the 2024-25 NBA Finals.
Hali deserves all of this. He deserves to be applauded. He deserves to feel at home on the court, even if he isn't at 100% just yet. He is stepping into the shallow end of the pool, preparing for the cold water of what could go wrong.
Haliburton and the Pacers' possibilities
As everyone knows at this point, everything this year relies entirely on the return of Tyrese Haliburton. If he can return to his peak performance from before his career-changing injury, the Pacers will be one of the best, most well-rounded teams in the league and contenders once again.
That's a pretty exciting promise, but the inverse is also true. If this season falls apart, it will inevitably be placed at the feet of Haliburton. His failure or success is not the only X-Factor of the season, but it may as well be.
Everything is on his shoulders. Like a modern-day Atlas of basketball, he is carrying the world of Indiana Pacers basketball. The sky is on his back, as the season is his to define.
Maybe that's what makes this moment so special. It would have been cool regardless, as it is for any player to play in front of their alma mater's crowd one last time. It would be cool if it had been Obi Toppin hosted at Dayton, a school he brought back to relevancy in 2020, winning National Player of the Year in his conference.
But, somehow, this is even bigger. This is a moment of quiet reassurance from the stands, cheers of "welcome back" from a mob of people who knew him before he was ever expected to be a franchise-changing superstar.
This is a moment that we can tell will be special before it even happens. That's rare to see. This will be everything Indiana Pacers basketball is about.
It is a homecoming in the literal sense, but in the emotional sense, it is a reminder that he will always be loved in the Hilton Coliseum, whether he succeeds this season or not.
Tyrese Haliburton surely needs that right now.
Add us as a preferred source on Google