THE SWEAT FROM Tyrese Haliburton's Indiana Pacers jersey almost immediately began to seep into his blue warmup shirt.
For 16 months, the two-time All-Star guard had been patiently -- and then not so patiently -- and then practically champing at the bit to leave his seat on the sideline and play minutes in an NBA game.
On Oct. 7, he finally did. The Pacers were playing in Ames, Iowa, at Iowa State University, Haliburton's alma mater, where it was a two-part homecoming.
It was his first game at his college arena in six years. Students began lining up the night before the game to get into the student section and grab a yellow shirt with Haliburton's face on it over the moniker "Cyclone Hali." And it was also Haliburton's first seven minutes in a game since tearing his right Achilles during Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals.
With 4:27 remaining in the first quarter of the Pacers' preseason opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Oct. 7, Haliburton relished a different moment: his first break.
"I was tired as hell," Haliburton said with a laugh after the game. "But even through that, I just kept feeling like, 'Man, I'm playing again.'"
On Indiana's first possession of the game, an antsy Haliburton fired a no-look pass, intended for Andrew Nembhard, out of bounds. But with that out of the way, on the next possession, Haliburton ran a 2-on-1 with Pascal Siakam that Haliburton finished with a crossover into a 15-foot jumper for his first basket in more than a year.