The NBA Finals are where legends are made – but sometimes, they’re also where unwanted records are broken. Tyrese Haliburton just joined a club that no All-NBA player has been part of in 67 years.

Haliburton became the first since Slater Martin in 1958 to go an entire Finals game without making a single field goal. That was before the Celtics moved to Boston, before the shot clock existed, before most of our parents were even born.

The numbers paint a grim picture: 0-for-6 from the field, just four points, and a -13 plus/minus that hung over Indiana’s 120-109 loss like a dark cloud. This wasn’t just an off night – it was a complete system failure for a player who had been averaging 18 points per game in these Finals.

Tyrese Haliburton (@TyHaliburton22) is the first All-NBA player since Slater Martin of the St. Louis Hawks (1958) to not make a single shot in an NBA Finals game.

— BucksRealm (@BucksRealm) June 17, 2025

What makes this stat so shocking is the company Haliburton now keeps. Martin’s 1958 performance came in a different basketball universe – one without three-point lines, advanced sports medicine, or the concept of load management. In today’s era of player optimization, for an All-NBA talent to not score a basket from the field in the championship round defies modern basketball logic.

The context makes it even more jarring. This wasn’t some role player having a cold shooting night – this was Indiana‘s franchise cornerstone, their offensive engine, reduced to a decoy by a nagging calf injury. His postgame admission – “If I can walk, I want to play” – speaks to the warrior mentality that might have cost his team in this case.

As the series shifts back to Indianapolis, Tyrese Haliburton faces a crossroads: risk further damage to his body and reputation, or trust his teammates to pick up the slack. Because while heart matters in basketball, the Finals have always been about one thing – making shots when they count most. And right now, history suggests Haliburton’s body might be telling him something his competitive fire refuses to hear.

Playing Through Pain or Playing Into Trouble? Tyrese Haliburton’s Impossible Choice

There’s playing through pain, and then there’s what we say in Game 5 – a superstar reduced to a shell, his calf wrapped tighter than a mummy, yet still dragging himself up and down the court.

That determination earned him an unwanted place in history. What makes this so tragic is we’ve seen this movie before. Tyrese Haliburton’s been battling this calf issue since the Conference Finals, yet both he and Rick Carlisle keep pressing play on the same script. “If I can walk, I want to play” sounds inspirational until you realize walking isn’t the requirement – dominating is. And Stephen A. Smith wasn’t wrong when he argued. Because right now, Haliburton’s courage is costing his team more than his absence ever could.

The Pacers face an impossible calculus heading into Game 6. Do they believe two days’ rest will fix what weeks haven’t? Or do they finally unleash T.J. McConnell fully, the human defibrillator who nearly shocked OKC back to life in Game 5? Haliburton’s heart isn’t the question – his body is. And in the Finals, where legends separate themselves, sometimes the bravest move is knowing when to sit down.

As the series shifts back to Indianapolis, the math gets simpler by the minute. The Pacers don’t need 1958 Tyrese Haliburton setting records no star wants. They need the All-NBA version, who got them here. And if that guy can’t walk through that tunnel without wincing, perhaps the most heroic act left is grabbing a seat next to Carlisle – and trusting the teammates he’s been accidentally drowning with him.