The 2025/26 NBA season was a tough one for Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers, with the fans having to watch their struggles as their star point guard and leader missed the entire season following the injury in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
After a busy off-season, the team are hoping to bounce back in 2026/27, and with the Eastern Conference being as loaded as any time in recent memory, they’ll have an uphill battle if they want to get back to the NBA Finals. Ahead of the season, Haliburton is making plenty of media appearances as he continues to grow as a personality in the NBA, and in appearance on LeBron James and Steve Nash’s podcast, he took a shot at Adam Silver.
Tyrese Haliburton Slams NBA’s 65-Game Rule
GettyTyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers.
During his tenure as NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver has made some good decisions and some bad ones, and for the most part, the rule that decrees a player must appear in 65 games or more to be eligible for All-NBA or year end awards was received with plenty of positivity from the fans. This rule was implemented to stop the load management that was plaguing the NBA.
However, not everyone is a fan of the award, especially Haliburton, who called it out on the basis of how potentially missing 1-2 extra games due to injury would cause a players stock to fall in historical chatter or in contract talks, with those one or two games potentially being the difference between getting a supermax deal or not.
The 65-game rule was implemented [during] my contract year. I had to play 65 games to make All-NBA to be eligible for the supermax,” Haliburton said. “I said that I didn’t like it at the time, and I still feel that way… NBA players want to play. We don’t want to sit down. We want to play.”
Was This Rule a Good one for the NBA?
On paper, the rule makes perfect sense, as the NBA have limited the ability of players to take games off, meaning that games are more important with all the stars on the floor, all while prioritizing fans, many of whom spent plenty of money only for players to sit out and waste their time. This was at its worst in the late 2010’s and early 2020’s with the likes of Kawhi Leonard, who would often sit out games simply to get extra rest in, but now, the league has forced players to want to compete and be on the floor for as many games as possible throughout the season.
Unfortunately, that comes with some negative side effects, with players potential All-NBA positions or awards like MVP and DPOY being taken away due to a simple injury, but if players like Haliburton continue to call it out, it may force Silver and the league to take a look at adjusting the rule moving forward.
Pacers Tyrese Haliburton Calls out Adam Silver and the NBA for Polarizing Rule