OKC win the NBA Championship in Game 7! Tyrese Haliburton leaves with torn Achilles

WQAM-AM / AM 560 Sports WQAM

The Oklahoma City Thunder win the NBA Championship beating the Pacers in Game 7, 103 to 91. Tyrese Haliburton was lost in the 1st quarter with a non contact injury which is reportedly a torn Achilles. Leroy discusses the battle athletes go through when deciding whether or not to power through injury and how iconic this playoffs was for him.

Transcript

00:00the oklahoma city thunder win the nba championship they win game 7 103 to 91

00:06shea gildress alexander named your finals mvp but of course impossible not to feel a little bit

00:13empty uh as tyrese halliburton lost early in this game with a non-contact injury which his father

00:21reported at least stulters was a torn achilles you can see it you can actually watch it i knew

00:26it right away i texted you i text you guys right away man that that calf strain you've said this

00:32like what a scary injury that is and like it feels like this is eating up basketball players

00:36more than ever but here's here's where i have a problem with this there's a difference in a calf

00:44strain and a calf strain that you can't play from that means it's more serious and these are the

00:54things so remember kd sat out for like two weeks yes and then came back and tore his achilles

01:03okay he had been fighting this for a while so at what point with all the information that we have

01:13about this injury at what point and i get it i had this argument this morning i understand is game seven

01:23okay here's where all this differs in that sport is that you have this injury now

01:35now you're paying a 50 million dollar guy and he ain't playing next year right and so it becomes a

01:44different conversation about having this when all the money is guaranteed and i expect tyrese

01:54halliburton always say i'm gonna go out and try to play i'm gonna go out and give everything that i

01:59can this game set but he but the medical staff has to know more the medical staff has to present

02:07that information to all the parties that be is that we've had this injury a lot in the nba and it all

02:17starts with this how are we going to handle this now it has never do it it has to be because it's

02:24like you know we even talked about this like when the injury first came out remember we discussed like

02:29man that's a that's a tricky one because i'm sure there's be an element of he wants to push through

02:34it's it's it's a no-win situation that's why i say your organization and your training staff and your

02:39doctors have to protect you from you because if you say we are sitting tyrese halliburton because

02:46we don't want to risk the possibility of losing him for a year plus right versus tyrese halliburton

02:55saying i'm gonna sit this out it has a whole different you know conversation it's a whole different

03:03conversation now i bring this up over and over again and this is why this situation becomes tricky

03:13with fans and with organizations and i go to the jay color injury when he was on the sideline

03:20riding a bike trying to stay loose and everybody was on him saying you give me everything you got

03:27you give me and because he wasn't rolling around on the ground they thought he was being a coward

03:36only to find out he had a torn acl and nobody goes back since nobody ever goes back and says

03:46you know what jay color my bad you know what tyrese my bad but those players have to live with that

03:52i don't know how to approach it i'm torn you hear me have this conversation over and over again as a

03:59person who's experienced it and i'll tell you the difference between basketball and football

04:03i sucked it up and played a a year with a torn rotator cuff and i had surgery the day after the

04:14season was over with and you know what that got me you can come back if you play for the minimum

04:20geez right so to all these people that say what he should have should or should not have done

04:28kiss my ass okay because this is a situation where you have a person and they're not weighing all of

04:41the different options they're only seeing well if he can give us this or if he give us that and and as a

04:48medical staff i'm disgusted that they don't even they don't see throughout the nba how these injuries

04:56have presented themselves and take precautionary measures it's pretty crazy though that we've had

05:01three of them in one playoffs that's three i mean we know dame's a little older and he had the blood

05:08clot in the calf okay and i think it went to the other calf it's a little it's and i think it was the

05:12other calf that he ended up tearing right right but still there's a difference in that though tobin

05:19i'm not talking about one that comes all of a sudden yeah right that was all of a sudden injury

05:24that's still pretty crazy though three stars going down with cat with cat achilles like achilles used

05:29to be pretty rare yeah you know yeah pretty pretty and to have two 25 year olds go down with it right

05:37and when you think about you know it was non-contact with um tatum also yeah okay but tatum wasn't hurt

05:45beforehand tatum wasn't nursing a calf beforehand and that's the thing that even if you see dame

05:54and tatum and it happened to those guys right and then you're presented with this calf strain that

06:01your player is barely being able to play who pulls the trigger and says no

06:06i get it's a game seven i get it there's no but guess what well that was where's indiana going

06:14to be next year without him i don't know is it now i ask you then ask me in a year if they're in

06:21a plan or they don't make the playoffs because they don't have their star player was it worth it

06:26josh hart points out all from the east and all wear number zero that is pretty weird one

06:32strange deep strange detail but it's uh no man that's that's a that's a harbor and like i don't

06:41want to take look okay loma city was awesome all year like don't get me wrong but like come on dude

06:47like that to to to have him go down like that i don't i don't know how you were the fact that they

06:53were even you know leading at half like it's crazy to me but like that's uh that's such a that's such a

07:00gut punch yeah for what what was just an incredible postseason run for tyrese halliburton

07:06pretty much pretty much and and and here's a he's one of those guys that you didn't necessarily need

07:13to score but he made that much of an impact that's that was the coolest thing about what he was doing

07:20where people would turn up the stat line and say oh he only had this many points or this many but

07:25when you watch him play right he has an impact without scoring because he does so much for that

07:33team so i'm interested to see you know and and here's the thing if you ask anybody they'll lie

07:40right if you ask anybody they'll lie yeah it was worth it no it wasn't he's 25 years old

07:47it was not worth it yeah because not if you had an injury that you knew could lead to that

07:54yeah because we still don't really know like it's i mean this is going to be a fascinating case like

07:58yeah people go to kd and kd did come back pretty well from him from the achilles he did take a lot

08:03of time though remember he plays he plays a different game no he's a guy that can get a shot from anywhere

08:08he's yeah i mean but you know like we john wall was never the same for the achilles he i think

08:17retored again right we saw remember we talked to victor ladibo victor ladibo had one of those

08:21unsuccessful surgeries wasn't achilles it was quad but he's so i think everybody will say oh he'll

08:28bounce back there's no guarantee definitely not definitely not it's i don't i don't i don't understand

08:37how

08:41you can let it get to that point now i would ask you at any point in time did he have an mri before now

08:52before he tore yeah i thought he did get an mri didn't he when they first got the injury i think

08:57that there was talk that he got an mri i don't know what the results of it were but right i remember

09:01that being a report that like once he first got hurt in game five when they were talking about six

09:07remember like they all thought that he okey-doked that oh he's not that hurt um but man i mean it's

09:15it's just it's just brutal i can't believe another one went down and you don't know what they did to

09:20get him ready to play yep you see what i'm saying like it's just it's it's so much that goes into it

09:31that you need a higher power in the organization to kind of be aware of the whole situation and not

09:45just and and i hate to bring up this one because he's here clay thompson never really been the same

09:53either because he had the achilles then the acl right and don't forget what he did to that lady at

09:59the parade come on man what do you mean he didn't trample anybody what it looks like oh i i feel bad for

10:06him especially when he like this would have been the greatest story in sports to be rated the most

10:19overrated player in the nba and then win a championship oh the story would write itself

10:26now like and that's that's man listen that recovery is brutal because it's all about range

10:39of motion and if you're not at a certain level of range of motion same thing with your knee

10:44they force it because you got to tear the scar tissue so it's a long road it's a long road and

10:52people say and and and i love here's the argument that i got this morning when i was getting pt

10:59it's game seven you got to go really that's that's all you got for me because i got a 25 year old with

11:09a torn achilles right and and maybe would have maybe would have had 10 more years for that organization

11:16and now and his game is speed elusiveness through the lane right like jerky kind of like

11:24awkwardness that makes him special right the awkwardness and how he does things i just like

11:32it bothers me that you have so many people that you look towards for advice you know and

11:43i would say they all failed him even if he said i want to go even if i said this is one of those

11:51situations where sometimes the organization and the training staff have to be honest and have to

11:58protect the player from himself well what do you have here what are you trying to do just like

12:04he really brutally attacked her i mean did not wait wait wait time out time out who is she there

12:11time out time out he more importantly why does he have video proof of all situations involving clay

12:20do you have it like saved in a folder like he just runs after her he pretends to trip

12:25he's falling pretends to trip no the lower man wins everyone knows

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