Tyrese Haliburton before his first real game in 486 days: ‘I have a lot more to offer,’ and Bennedict Mathurin has ‘a few things’ ready for him

Tyrese Haliburton plays a game that counts on Wednesday night for the first time in 486 days. The Indiana Pacers open the season at the New Orleans Pelicans at 8 p.m. ET, which is 3 a.m. Thursday in Cairo, and the last time Haliburton played a regular-season or playoff game, his right Achilles tendon tore in the first quarter of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals in Oklahoma City.

On the eve of the opener, the 26-year-old said the year away made him think about something he had never considered before. “When you’re hurt and you miss a whole year, you have a major injury like that, I’m 26 years old, it’s the first time that I’ve ever thought about what life will be like for me after basketball,” Haliburton said at the Pacers’ media availability on Tuesday. “I’ve never thought about that before. But I don’t know if I still could give you that answer, but I do know that I have a lot more to offer. I have a lot more to bring to the table as a basketball player. And I don’t want to retire or be done playing without accomplishing everything I want in life.”

The video above was posted by the Pacers. Haliburton speaks from the 2:30 mark.

‘Like kid on Christmas’

Haliburton said he expects the night before the opener to feel the way big games always have. “Anytime it’s like the first game of the year, big game, playoffs, anything like that, it’s like kid on Christmas, right? You’re just excited. It’s hard to sleep, all those things,” he said.

He called the preseason “a fun kind of starting point” and said the team had to “flush it all” before Game 1. He played three of Indiana’s four exhibitions, scoring 48 points with 15 assists on 19-of-36 shooting, including 24 points in 17 minutes at Oklahoma City.

Asked whether he would feel sped up again, as he said he did in his first preseason game, he said no, and explained what went wrong that night at Iowa State, his old college arena. He usually drinks an energy drink before games for a lift, he said, but he did not need it that night. “I took it and I was a jittery mess,” he said. “So I think we’re done with that for a little bit.”

‘We have never started the season hot’

Indiana went 19-63 last season without him. Haliburton said the expectations outside the building “have never been bigger than they are in the building,” and that the goal is still a championship. “We’ve got to get back to building championship habits and just taking it a day at a time,” he said.

He also pointed to a habit he wants to break. “For as long as I’ve been here, we have never started the season hot,” Haliburton said. “Even the year we went to the Finals, we were really rough to start the year. So I think that’s something that I haven’t been able to do in my career, is have a good start to the season.”

He said the core of the Finals team is still together, with the same coaching staff, though Indiana is “missing two key pieces” from that run. Myles Turner left for Milwaukee in July 2025, and Bennedict Mathurin was traded to the Clippers in February in the deal that brought Ivica Zubac to Indiana. “I think Zu has been really good for us and Kelly’s been really good for us,” Haliburton said, referring to Zubac and Kelly Oubre Jr., who signed in the summer. “They fit in the locker room, they fit in at the card table, they fit in everywhere off the court as well.”

Indiana will be without Aaron Nesmith and T.J. McConnell on Wednesday. The Pacers’ listed probable starters are Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Pascal Siakam and Zubac, so Nesmith’s absence opens a spot.

Mathurin: ‘A few things that I know he doesn’t really like’

The opponent makes the night more personal. Mathurin, who signed a two-year deal with New Orleans in August after his half-season with the Clippers, had been Haliburton’s teammate since Indiana drafted him in 2022, and Game 7 was the last game they played together. Haliburton said Tuesday he had never faced him in an NBA game. “I’m excited, man. I’m excited,” he said. “I know how fierce of a competitor he is.”

Bennedict Mathurin on being the opponent in Tyrese Haliburton’s return to the court: pic.twitter.com/zDu6x77jyo

— Tony East (@TonyREast) October 21, 2026

The video above was posted by Pacers reporter Tony East.

Mathurin, speaking at the Pelicans’ shootaround on Wednesday, said being part of Haliburton’s return did not mean anything special to him, “because I’m going against him. If I was on the same team as him, it would have been.” He added: “But I mean, in some kind of way, I’m kind of honored, you know, just to go against him. And I’m excited. I’m super excited to match up against him, and we’ve been going at it for a lot of practices and a lot of workouts, but we finally get to put it in action.”

Asked whether he would be the one to stop his old teammate, Mathurin laughed it off. “I wouldn’t say that. He’s very, very talented, but I can guarantee that I am going to go out there and play as hard as I can to try and slow him down,” he said. “I have a few things that I know he doesn’t really like, so I’m going to try to apply. Can’t tell y’all what it is, though.”

Mathurin also said he wants to show this season that he is more than a scorer. “I’m known as the scorer, but I think I have a great ability to be a two-way player. This is the year to show it,” he said. New Orleans, led by Zion Williamson, went 26-56 last season.