REPORT: TORN ACHILLES FOR PACERS STAR TYRESE HALIBURTON
Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton sustained a torn right Achilles tendon in Sunday night’s NBA Finals Game 7 loss at Oklahoma City, ESPN reported Monday.
The All-NBA guard was helped off the court and immediately taken to the locker room in obvious pain during the first quarter.
With the game tied 16-16 and 5:03 on the clock, Haliburton accepted a pass outside the 3-point arc and pushed off the ball of his right foot to initiate a drive to the basket. Instead of maneuvering past Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he fell to the floor in anguish while losing possession of the ball. While the Thunder went the other way for a dunk, Haliburton pounded the floor with his hand several times and was unable to put weight on the leg while being escorted to the locker room.
Without Haliburton, the Pacers were outscored 56-43 in the second half as Oklahoma City won the championship with a 103-91 victory.
Haliburton, 25, had been playing through a strained right calf, an injury he is believed to have suffered in Indiana’s Game 5 loss at Oklahoma City.
The two-time All-Star scored nine points with three 3-pointers before leaving the floor. He averaged 14.0 points, 5.9 assists and 4.6 rebounds during the NBA Finals.
The typical recovery time for a basketball player with a torn Achilles tendon ranges from eight to 10 months.
Fellow All-Stars Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics are currently recovering from the same injury. They, too, suffered their injuries during the 2025 NBA playoffs.
Haliburton averaged 18.6 points, 9.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds in 73 games (all starts) during the regular season. He has career averages of 17.5 points, 8.8 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 333 games (294 starts) for the Sacramento Kings (2020-22) and Pacers.
REPORT: CELTICS DEAL JRUE HOLIDAY TO BLAZERS FOR ANFERNEE SIMONS, PICKS
The Portland Trail Blazers are reacquiring two-time All-Star guard Jrue Holiday from the Celtics, sending guard Anfernee Simons and two future second-round draft picks to Boston in return, ESPN reported on Monday night.
Holiday, 35, who will earn $32.4 million next season, is owed a total of approximately $72 million in 2026-27 and 2027-28, after which his four-year, $134.4 million contract that he signed with the Celtics in April 2024 expires.
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old Simons joins the Celtics on an expiring contract. Per ESPN, the deal saves Boston $40 million in luxury tax payments next season.
In 2023, Portland landed Holiday in a deal with the Milwaukee Bucks for Damian Lillard, then sent the 16-year veteran to Boston and acquired a pair of first-round picks. Holiday never played a game for the Blazers.
Per the report, the Celtics are actively involved in trade talks involving multiple players on their roster following Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear in the second round of the playoffs.
In his first season with the Celtics, Holiday played an instrumental role in the team’s run to the NBA title, shooting a career-high 42.9 percent from 3-point range in 2023-24 and earning All-Defensive team honors.
Holiday was a first-round pick (No. 17 overall) of the Philadelphia 76ers in 2009. He has career averages of 15.8 points, 6.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals with the 76ers (2009-13), New Orleans Pelicans (2013-20), Bucks (2020-23) and Celtics in 1,037 games (956 starts). He won his first NBA title with Milwaukee in 2021 and is a six-time All-Defensive selection.
Simons, 26, was also a first-round selection, picked at No. 24 by the Blazers in 2018. In seven seasons with Portland he posted 15.0 points, 3.3 assists and 2.5 rebounds over 389 games (213 starts). He should fit in with the Celtics’ offensive approach, as he has averaged nearly nine 3-point attempts per game the last three seasons and is a career 38.1 percent shooter from distance.
REPORT: MAVS C DANIEL GAFFORD TO SIGN 3-YEAR, $60M EXTENSION
Center Daniel Gafford, a key piece of the formidable frontcourt for the Dallas Mavericks, will sign a three-year contract extension worth close to $60 million, ESPN reported on Monday.
Other media outlets reported that Gafford’s deal will be worth $54 million.
In 2025-26, the 26-year-old Gafford is set to earn $14.4 million — per Spotrac — in the final year of a three-year, $40.2 million contract extension he signed in 2021 with the Washington Wizards.
According to ESPN, Gafford’s agents — Mike George and Shy Saee of Klutch Sports — worked with Dallas officials on the new deal, which runs through the 2028-29 season.
Gafford, who joined the Mavericks in a trade with the Wizards in February 2024 and helped Dallas reach the NBA Finals that spring, will again team up with Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II in the frontcourt. That trio is expected to be joined by Duke star Cooper Flagg with Dallas holding the No. 1 pick in Wednesday’s NBA Draft.
A second-round pick of the Chicago Bulls in the 2019 draft, Gafford is an impressive finisher, boasting the highest career field goal percentage (71 percent) in the NBA since he entered the league. In 2023-24, he led the NBA in field goal percentage at 72.5 percent.
In six seasons with the Bulls (2019-21), Wizards (2021-24) and Mavericks, Gafford has averaged 9.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game over 378 games (215 starts).
THUNDER WIN IN GAME 7 DRAWS HIGHEST NBA FINALS VIEWERSHIP IN 6 YEARS
An otherwise mediocre NBA Finals in terms of viewership put on a historic show on Sunday thanks to Game 7.
As the Oklahoma City Thunder won 103-91 to claim the franchise’s first title since winning as the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979, Game 7 drew an average of 16.353 million viewers on ABC and ESPN+, peaking at 19.281 million in the 15 minutes leading up to 10 p.m. ET.
The result: Sunday’s Game 7 becomes the most-watched NBA Finals contest since Game 6 of the 2019 Finals between Golden State and Toronto, which attracted 18.3 million viewers.
Overall, the 2025 installment averaged 10.266 million viewers, which is down from 11.3 million in last year’s five-game series between Boston and Dallas. Market size could certainly have played a factor, considering Indianapolis stands as the 25th-largest media market in the country while Oklahoma City ranks 47th.
According to ESPN, the entire 2025 playoffs aired on its network and ABC averaged 6.118 million viewers across 34 games, reflecting a 10 percent increase from a year ago.
THE NBA OFFSEASON IS OFFICIALLY HERE. IT’S BEEN GOING ON FOR SOME TIME, ACTUALLY
Kevin Durant already has been traded to Houston. The New York Knicks are looking for a coach. Cooper Flagg is about to become the No. 1 pick in the draft. Expansion plans likely will take a big step forward in a few weeks. The Los Angeles Lakers just got sold.
The NBA offseason officially has started. In reality, it’s been going for a few weeks already.
There’s a parade in Oklahoma City on Tuesday to celebrate the newly crowned champion Thunder, and in every other NBA city there’s going a parade of movement — some of which already has started — over the coming weeks to try to catch the champs.
“These are difficult equations,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said as the Warriors were starting their summer more than a month ago. “You look around the league, and you see some teams that have mortgaged their future, and they’re in some trouble. There are other teams that have done so, and they’re championship contenders.”
Outside of Oklahoma City — where virtually the entire rotation is expected to be back, led by MVP, Finals MVP, scoring champion and NBA champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who just put together one of the best individual seasons of all time — there are plenty of questions everywhere.
Among them:
— Will the Spurs get Victor Wembanyama back at full strength after he missed the last two months of the regular season with deep vein thrombosis in one of his shoulders? (The answer is believed to be yes.)
— How will Boston, Milwaukee and Eastern Conference champion Indiana fare now that Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton are set to miss most, if not all of, next season with Achilles tendon injuries? (The answer is probably not great.)
— Who will New York get to replace the fired Tom Thibodeau? (The answer is anyone’s guess, especially after multiple teams refused to let their under-contract coaches interview for that gig.)
The injury situations for the Celtics, Bucks and Pacers certainly have teams thinking that the East could be more of a wide-open race in 2025-26. Orlando made a big move earlier this month, landing Desmond Bane from Memphis to play with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. And the Magic made that move knowing it would take them into the luxury tax, but that’s the price they’re willing to pay to try to win now.
“We put our foot on the gas here,” Magic president Jeff Weltman said. “So, as I’ve always said, that train is coming for everybody. We probably skipped a station here and I hope that our team is good enough to merit where the finances will take us.”
Houston finished 16 games behind Oklahoma City in the Western Conference and still got the No. 2 seed for the playoffs. The Rockets are hoping to close that gap now that they’ve added one of the greatest scorers in league history in Durant — who was the subject of trade talks for some time.
“Being part of the Houston Rockets, I’m looking forward to it,” Durant said in an interview with Fanatics at Fanatics Fest, where he was on stage for a scheduled discussion when the news broke Sunday. “Crazy, crazy couple of weeks, but I’m glad it’s over with.”
The Durant trade was probably the biggest in the NBA since the Lakers landed Luka Doncic earlier this year. The team that traded Doncic was the Dallas Mavericks; they went on to win the draft lottery and the right to land Flagg, the one-and-done star out of Duke.
Flagg will be the No. 1 pick on Wednesday night, just like LeBron James was 22 years ago. James has a decision to make on his player option for next season with the Lakers in the coming days, though all signs point to him returning and becoming the first 23-season player in NBA history.
“At this point of my career, you think about when the end is. That’s human nature,” James told The Associated Press last week in an interview promoting his partnership with Amazon. “You think: Is it this year? Or next year? Those thoughts always creep into your mind at this point of the journey. But I have not given it a specific timetable, date. I’m seeing how my body and family reacts, too.”
The Lakers struck a deal last week for Mark Walter to become the majority owner, a move that would end a 46-year run of team control by the Buss family. There are sales pending for the Minnesota Timberwolves (which is expected to be done in the next few days, with Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez set to finally close on that agreement) and the Celtics as well. There likely will be discussions on both at the board of governors meeting in Las Vegas next month, and that’s also where the NBA is expected to officially open a process of exploring possible expansion.
“It will be on the agenda to take the temperature of the room,” Commissioner Adam Silver said. “We have committees that are already talking about it. But my sense is at that meeting, they’re going to give direction to me and my colleagues at the league office that we should continue to explore it.”
Free agency starts in earnest on June 30, summer leagues in Utah and California open a few days later and then the every-team-goes NBA Summer League in Las Vegas — where Flagg likely will debut as a Mavericks player — opens July 10. There will be a schedule release likely in August, then camps open in late September.
It is the offseason. Nobody is really off, at least not for a few more weeks anyway.
“You get away from the game a little bit,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. “And then you’re rebuilding everything for another great run.”
THE THUNDER ARE NBA CHAMPIONS, AND THEY MIGHT BE JUST GETTING STARTED
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The promise came three years ago from Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti. It might have been overlooked for a couple of reasons. One, the Thunder were awful at the time. Two, he was speaking Latin.
“Labor omnia vincit,” Presti said after the 2021-22 season, quoting a motto of Oklahoma. Depending on how Presti was translating it, it could have been “hard work conquers all” or “slow work conquers all.”
Either way, it applies to the Thunder. They did hard work. They did slow work.
They conquered all.
The Thunder — three years removed from winning 24 games — won 84 games this season and are NBA champions after beating the Indiana Pacers in a seven-game NBA Finals slugfest. For the rest of the NBA, this should be a scary development. They have the MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He and all of Oklahoma City’s key players are under contract for next season, there’s a 2024 lottery pick in Nikola Topic who didn’t even play this season because of a torn ACL and the Thunder currently have two picks in the top 24 in this year’s draft as well.
They are young; their starters, right now, are 27, 26, 26, 24 and 23. They are bold. And they might — should — be contending for a while.
“We definitely still have room to grow,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP, the NBA Finals MVP, the league’s scoring champion and now, an NBA champion as well. “That’s the fun part of this. So many of us can still get better. There’s not very many of us on the team that are in our prime or even close to it. We have a lot to grow, individually and as a group. I’m excited for the future of this team. This is a great start, for sure.”
And the timing of them hitting this sort of stride is pretty good, too.
Plenty of teams have questions going into next season. Oklahoma City isn’t one of them. Jayson Tatum in Boston, Damian Lillard in Milwaukee and now Tyrese Haliburton in Indiana all have Achilles injuries and figure to miss most if not all of next season. The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James will be going into his 23rd season. Golden State’s Stephen Curry is turning 38 next season. Kevin Durant, now of Houston (in a trade that’s going to be official in the coming weeks), is going into his 18th season. Philadelphia’s hopes hinge on Joel Embiid coming back healthy. New York will be dealing with a coaching change.
Oklahoma City seems to have everything right in place.
“They have a lot of great players on this team,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren all seem to enjoy playing with and off one another, none of them caring who gets credit. Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein fit seamlessly into the roles the Thunder asked them to play. Luguentz Dort is a defensive machine and has come to realize that most people don’t have the ability to appreciate how good he is at that end.
It’s not just the players who don’t care about puffing out their own chests. Same goes for the leadership.
“You’re not guaranteed anything in the league,” Caruso said. “I think that’s the biggest thing that happens year to year that people forget about. Any moment your team can change with a trade, with an injury, with something that’s out of your control. To be able to get to the pinnacle of this sport and win it is nothing short of extraordinary. To think that you can just walk in and do it every single year is a little bit naïve. Rest assured, we’ll show up Day 1 next year ready to get better and ready to chase this again.”
Presti, the architect of it all, rarely speaks publicly. Same goes for Clay Bennett, the owner. And coach Mark Daigneault is the calm in the eye of any storm, the perfect driver of the Thunder bus.
“There’s no guarantee you end it the way that we did,” Daigneault said. “I just wanted it so bad for them. I was just so thrilled that we were able to get that done and they get to experience this because they deserve it. The way they approach it, the professionalism, competitiveness, team-first nature, like I said, I wanted it so bad for them.”
The journey isn’t over for the Thunder. It’s just starting. Presti has a war chest filled with draft picks and the team has some financial flexibility to add a piece if it so chooses. And now there’s a title to defend.
Labor omnia vincit. There’s more work to do.
“We have a lot of hard work in front of us,” Presti said that day in 2022. “We have to grind in and do it. That’s what the state is about. That’s what the history of the community is about. That’s what the basketball team here is about.”
2026 NBA TITLE ODDS: THUNDER FAVORED TO REPEAT, HALIBURTON INJURY IMPACTS BOARD
THE SCORE
After the Thunder captured their first NBA championship in franchise history Sunday, they’re +220 favorites on theScore Bet/ESPN Bet to go back-to-back in 2026, the shortest preseason odds since the 2018-19 Warriors.
The Thunder’s core, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, will return next season. Gilgeous-Alexander was the first player to win the regular-season MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same season since LeBron James in 2013.
Oklahoma City’s remarkable depth led the team to a title. And next year, it’ll run it back with a similar squad in hopes of becoming the first team to defend their championship in eight years.
The NBA has significantly more roster continuity than college basketball, but it’s still hard to predict how teams will look when training camp opens in October. An influx of player movement this summer could shake up the board. We’ve already seen the Kevin Durant and Desmond Bane trades dramatically shift the odds for the Rockets (from +1800 to +850) and Magic (from +4000 to +1500).
Then, there’s the Giannis Antetokounmpo factor. He’s signaled that he’s more likely to stay with the Bucks than ask to leave, but teams will be circling like sharks if he does become available. That would likely lead to an odds jump for the team that lands Antetokounmpo.
Heading into Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the Pacers had the second-best odds to win next year’s title at +850. Then cruelty struck. Indiana’s improbable and inspiring run ended in the most devastating way possible when Tyrese Haliburton injured his Achilles in the opening quarter. There’s a chance he’ll miss all of next season. The Pacers fell to +4000 after the injury occurred.
The Celtics are also further down the oddsboard because of an Achilles injury to Jayson Tatum, who will presumably miss next season. It’s almost impossible to imagine the Pacers or Celtics, the latter of whom are expected to move some key starters, competing for a championship without their best players.
That leaves the East wide open. The Cavaliers and Knicks have shorter championship odds now than before Haliburton’s injury. The Cavaliers won 64 regular-season games before bowing out in the second round, while the Knicks made their first conference finals in 25 years. And the Cavaliers’ and Knicks’ cores should look fairly similar next season.
The Magic, 76ers, and even the Pistons could all compete in a weakened Eastern Conference. Philadelphia is in win-now mode, and Orlando went all-in by trading for Bane.
The West is significantly more crowded and competitive than the East. The Rockets have the second-best odds after the Thunder now that a future Hall of Famer in Durant has joined the squad. The Lakers have the next-best odds despite important offseason decisions lurking. The Nuggets will always be in the mix with the NBA’s best player, Nikola Jokic, and the Timberwolves recently capped off back-to-back Western Conference finals appearances. The Warriors, Clippers, and Spurs could sneak up the oddsboard when the season approaches with quality offseason moves.
As it stands right now, though, the Thunder are primed to return to glory next year.
REPORT: WIZARDS’ KHRIS MIDDLETON PICKS UP $33.3M OPTION
Three-time All-Star forward Khris Middleton picked up his $33.3 million player option for the 2025-26 season with the Washington Wizards, ESPN reported Monday.
Middleton was traded from the Milwaukee Bucks, where he played for 12 seasons, to the Washington Wizards for Kyle Kuzma in a four-team deal on Feb. 6.
The 33-year-old was a big part of the Bucks’ NBA championship in 2021 but has been nagged by injuries in the years since. He finished the 2024-25 season with his lowest scoring average (11.9 points per game) and least amount of playing time (22.8 minutes per game) since his rookie season in 2012-13 with the Detroit Pistons.
In 776 career games (671 starts) with Detroit (2012-13), Milwaukee (2013-2025) and Washington, Middleton has averaged 16.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists. He has converted 38.7 percent of his 3-point attempts and 87.8 percent of his free throws.
2025 NBA DRAFT: TOP 30 PROSPECTS — AND A FEW TO KNOW FOR DAY 2
Cooper Flagg planted his flag as the No. 1 prospect in the 2025 NBA Draft long before he guided Duke to the Final Four as an 18-year-old freshman.
The 6-foot-9 forward is viewed as the surefire top pick in the draft Wednesday, but how the rest of the class will develop behind him is anyone’s guess.
Here’s a look at our top 30 players, ranked Flagg to 30, available in this year’s draft with a few others to keep an eye on early on Day 2:
1. F Cooper Flagg, Duke
2. G Dylan Harper, Rutgers
3. F VJ Edgecombe, Baylor
4. G Jeremiah Fears, Oklahoma
5. F Ace Bailey, Rutgers
6. G Kon Knueppel, Duke
7. C Khaman Maluach, Duke
8. C Derik Queen, Maryland
9. G Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois
10. G Tre Johnson, Texas
11. F Carter Bryant, Arizona
12. G Cedric Coward, Washington State
13. G Jase Richardson, Michigan State
14. G Collin Murray-Boyles, South Carolina
15. F Asa Newell, Georgia
16. G Noa Essengue, Ratiopharm Ulm (Germany)
17. F Nique Clifford, Colorado State
18. F Rasheer Fleming, Saint Joseph’s
19. F Thomas Sorber, Georgetown
20. G Egor Demin, BYU
21. F Nolan Traoré, Saint-Quentin (France)
22. F Noah Penda, Le Mans Sarthe Basket (France)
23. F Liam McNeeley, Connecticut
24. G Will Riley, Illinois
25. C Danny Wolf, Michigan
26. C Joan Beringer, Cedevita Olímpija (Slovenia)
27. G Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
28. G Hugo González, Real Madrid (Spain)
29. G Ben Saraf, Ratiopharm Ulm (Germany)
30. F Adou Thiero, Arkansas
If your team is holding a selection at the top of the second round when the clock starts ticking on Thursday night, here are the names you are hoping to hear called:
F Yanic Konan Niederhauser, Penn State
F Hansen Yang, Qingdao (China)
G Kam Jones, Marquette
F Maxime Raynaud, Stanford
G Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest
G Chaz Lanier, Tennessee
–Ethan Ward, Field Level Media
THE NBA DRAFT WILL HAVE TONS OF INTERNATIONAL TALENT, WHICH IS TO BE EXPECTED
There’s no Victor Wembanyama in the class headed to the NBA draft this week. There’s no Zaccharie Risacher, either. For the first time since 2022, the first pick in the draft will not be someone from France.
Wembanyama had that title in 2023. Risacher had it last year. This year, Duke’s Cooper Flagg is almost certain to go No. 1. That doesn’t mean there isn’t going to be a ton of international representation in these 59 picks. Far from it.
It’s not outside the realm of possibility that somewhere around one-third of the picks called on Wednesday and Thursday will be players who either originally or currently hail from outside the United States — from the Bahamas, South Sudan, Russia, Canada, China, Australia, Lithuania, Spain, Israel, France and more. Some went to college in the U.S., others will be looking to come play in this country (or Canada, if the Toronto Raptors come calling) for the first time.
“The guys who came before us, these are guys that kind of created a path, like prepared the NBA to welcome Europeans and to make life easier for us,” said Stanford center Maxime Raynaud, a first-round prospect from France. “And I think the best way to pay respect to that is just coming in with the hungriest mentality and the best work ethic possible.”
The one-third estimate — if it works out that way over the draft nights — might sound like a lot, but it isn’t. It actually is consistent with where the game is now, considering that roughly 30% of the players in the NBA this past season were born somewhere other than the U.S.
Some are names that are known in the U.S. from playing in college: Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe hails from the Bahamas and almost certainly will be a top-five pick, and Duke center Khaman Maluach — originally from South Sudan, and someone still learning the game — is a top-10 candidate.
“If you told me three years ago, I didn’t think I would be sitting here,” Maluach said. “But I knew one day I would be sitting here.”
A few stories from the international perspective to watch on Wednesday and Thursday:
Noa Essengue, France
He is a 6-foot-10 power forward who plays for the German club Ratiopharm Ulm. He is going to be drafted and almost certainly as a lottery pick. Whether he gets to the draft is anyone’s guess; his team is still playing in its league championship series, so getting to New York might be tough. It could clinch Tuesday, so a Wednesday arrival isn’t entirely impossible.
Joan Beringer, France
At 6-foot-11 with a wingspan of about 7-4, Beringer — who played professionally in Slovenia — is intriguing because of his combination of size, footwork and high-level knowledge of how to play defense. Expect him to go somewhere around the middle of the first round.
Hugo González, Spain
He debuted with Real Madrid in 2023 and long has been considered someone who’ll lead the next wave of players on Spain’s national team. That is extremely high praise for the 6-6 wing.
Nolan Traoré, France
A very intriguing point guard, the 6-3 (but very slender) teenager should be a first-rounder, but where he actually will land is a bit of a mystery. It’s not going to be a surprise if he’s one of at least three Frenchmen in the first 20 or so picks.
Hansen Yang, China
The inevitable Yao Ming comparisons will follow Yang into the NBA, but a solid showing at last month’s draft combine have the Chinese center — who stands 7-1 and still may be growing — listed by many as a serious first-round prospect. He has excellent footwork and passing ability, and he knows he can still get much better.
