Tyrese Haliburton Asks Reggie Miller How Pacers Can Get Back After Finals Loss

Tyrese Haliburton asked Reggie Miller how he got his teams back to the brink after losing there, a question he raised early in a 30-minute conversation released Thursday.

Haliburton's Indiana Pacers were swept by the Boston Celtics in the 2024 Eastern Conference finals. A year later, they beat Milwaukee, top-seeded Cleveland, and the New York Knicks to reach the NBA Finals, then lost Game 7 to Oklahoma City 103-91 after Haliburton ruptured his right Achilles in the first quarter.

Miller's Pacers were eliminated in Game 7 of the conference finals three times in five seasons, in 1994, 1995, and 1998.

For Haliburton, the title feels right there now.

"The more I look back, you don't realize how much winning has to happen and how, I don't want to say unlucky you have to be, but I feel like you were always right there," Haliburton said. "Mentality-wise, how did you flip the switch to, like, 'OK, next year, we got to get to the next year to get back there'? Because I always feel like it's, like, right there."

"And, like, for me now, it's like right there," Haliburton continued. "And then having to kind of flip my mindset to get back there, that's the hardest part of it."

Miller compares winning on that stage to a drug.

"And now that you've tasted it, because being in the Finals, when you taste success, even though what came from that was defeat, you want that all the time," Miller said. "It's like a drug. I tell people, winning and being successful and being on those stages, it's a drug and you always want it."

"So we took small steps of losing in the first round in my first two or three years, to the Bad Boys and Isiah. We lost to Larry and Boston," Miller added. "But those were like stepping stones, and I loved that atmosphere of playoff basketball, as you know. The best thing. It's totally different from regular season."

"You get a chance to game plan. You're going against a certain person. You know the strengths and weaknesses. They know yours," Miller detailed. "They take away your first two or three best plays, your best moves. What can you do now? That's the mark of a great player."

Donnie Walsh, then running the Pacers' front office, remade the up-tempo Pacers into a team far more like the grinding Knicks.

Walsh built the teams that finally broke through, Miller said.

"So once we started winning, Donnie Walsh, as we all know, the architect," Miller explained. "He understood that we're knocking on the door, and winning and being successful and being in Indiana, man, those fans, it's totally different. And they are all in."

"What's cool about playoff basketball in Indiana, when we talk about the fans," Miller noted. "It's like when you're leaving for games from your house, and there are signs and posters throughout your neighborhood as you're driving down."

The signs showed up for Haliburton, too.

"It's funny you say that, because you told me that, and I didn't. I was like, 'Really?'" Haliburton explained. "And then as we got to the Finals, every house in my neighborhood had signs for me. It was always the coolest part of being in the house."

Miller spent all 18 of his NBA seasons with Indiana and reached the Finals once, in 2000. The Pacers returned in 2025 and won Game 3 against the Thunder, the franchise's first Finals win in front of a home crowd since that 2000 series.

Haliburton put up 22 points, 11 assists, and nine rebounds in that 116-107 win and hugged Miller on the court afterward. Caitlin Clark and other members of the Indiana Fever were in the crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse that night.

Miller arrived to people asking whether Indiana even had an NBA team.

"You're playing for yourself and your teammates and all that, but the fans, that's what uplifts you," Miller said. "So winning is a drug. Competing at a high level, going against the MJs and the Shaqs and the Pennys, that was motivation for me. Now for you, it's the Brunsons, the Giannis', that's what kind of fuels."

"And when I first got to Indiana, people didn't know what the Pacer was. They laugh. 'There's an NBA team in Indiana?'" Miller continued. "And that kind of fueled me. That kind of pissed me off. And that's kind of got my blood boiling a little bit."

Much of Indiana is more diverse than players and fans around the league assume, Haliburton said.

"I think that's the biggest part about it," Haliburton said. "Guys in the NBA or fans might think that, Indiana being a, like, it's a predominantly white place, where obviously the more you're downtown, there's a lot of parts of Indiana that are much more diverse. So you're seeing those blendings of cultures come together, which is, I think, the beautiful part of Indiana."

"And that's what made it fun, is everybody coming together, same common goal to win a championship," Haliburton added. "And that's what makes it even more special in Indiana, just the blendings of everybody."

Giannis Antetokounmpo was traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Miami Heat this summer. Jalen Brunson scored 43 points against Indiana in Game 1 of the 2025 conference finals. He and the Knicks won the 2026 championship.

Indiana went 19-63 last season while Haliburton rehabbed. The 63 losses were a franchise record. Chris Haynes reported in July that the Pacers expected Haliburton to be available on the first day of the season, and Haliburton said on Aug. 12 that he was ready to play if it started then. He told reporters later that month he was "chomping at the bit".

The Pacers open camp Sept. 29 and begin the season Oct. 21 at New Orleans. The Knicks visit Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Nov. 13 in NBA Cup play.