One of my most vivid memories of covering the NBA is watching T.J. McConnell shoot 3-pointers in an off-site practice gym. It was 2018 and the 76ers were in Miami playing the Heat in the first round of the playoffs. I was there to interview then-Sixers coach Brett Brown, but I found myself more interested in this little dude hoisting shots up in the background.
And yes, hoisting is the right word. In stark contrast to most NBA players who flick up 30 footers like they’re tossing wadded-up paper into the trash bin, McConnell appeared to be using every ounce of force he could muster to simply get the ball to the rim. He might as well have been shot-putting a bowling ball. He looked positively normal, like the guy who gets called out of the stands at halftime to shoot for a gift certificate and suddenly realizes that 23 feet and nine inches is a lot farther away than it looks on TV.
I remember thinking: “This guy is an NBA player?”
Fast forward seven years, and McConnell is a lot more than your average NBA player. He has become one of the best bench players in the league. He’s on a $45 million contract that suddenly feels like a bargain for a guy who’s taking center stage in these NBA Finals, at times flat out carrying this Pacers team that on Thursday night waxed the Thunder clean off the floor with a 108-91 Game 6 lashing.
Buckle up, buttercups. Game 7 is on Sunday.
At this rate, McConnell, who went for 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists and four steals on Thursday, is poised to play a massive role in that one, too. This isn’t just a once-in-a-while thing, after all. McConnell earned multiple top-three votes for Sixth Man of the Year last season and he’s been on some kind of bender throughout this postseason, averaging double-digit points on 53% from the field and 42% from 3-point range.
Against OKC, specifically, he has gone full ham as the first player since Jason Kidd in 2002 to record at least 30 points, 15 assists and eight steals through the first three games of the Finals. In the Pacers’ Game 3 victory, he became the first bench player ever to card at least 10 points, five assists and five steals in a single Finals game.
It turned out, that was just an opening act for what McConnell did in Game 5 when, picking up the slack for an injured Tyrese Haliburton who missed all six of his shots, he poured in 18 points, including 13 in a third-quarter run that damn near had Pacers fans starting work on a statue. The Thunder won that game, briefly quieting the McConnell mania, but the cohort was back in full force on Thursday as McConnell etched his latest spot in NBA history — the first bench player with at least 60 points, 25 assists and 15 rebounds in a Finals series.
“He’s unbelievable, man,” Haliburton said of McConnell immediately following Game 6. “I don’t even have the words. He’s the great white hope.”
Seriously. This is folk-hero stuff. And let’s be honest: the way that McConnell looks is definitely factoring into the fanaticism. He’s an incredible player, obviously, but personally, I’ll be damned if no matter how many times I see it — and I don’t think I’m alone here — I am still surprised to every time I watch him blend up one of these super athletes before springing back into that crooked 13-foot fadeaway that is apparently automatic.
It begs the question, if this little guy with no height, no length, no lift, and by NBA standards pretty much zero athleticism, can jitterbug his way into this shot seemingly at will, why can’t every NBA guard do this?
Clearly, McConnell’s shiftiness and sense for creating last-second space is a real talent, as much as morons like me try to question where it all comes from. Importantly, Rick Carlisle gives him the freedom to keep his Steve Nash dribble alive as long as it takes him make a play.
That injects a ton of confidence into a guy like McConnell, who actually has a higher usage rate that Haliburton and has earned this kind of freelancing freedom by consistently creating buckets — not just for himself but for teammates, as evidence by this whirling whip pass to Pascal Siakam for a corner 3 in game 5.
McConnell initially carved out his place in the NBA as a quintessential hustle guy, and he still does all that stuff like a madman. The guy is everywhere. He’s on the floor for loose balls. Darting in for rebounds. Harassing point guards full court. Picking off inbounds passes like it’s a routine thing to do in the NBA.
Lest you think that was a one-off, it wasn’t. He does this stuff all the time.
And how about one more for good measure. This might be the wildest one of all — a sick dime for a cutting layup followed by an inbounds pass steal and subsequent save off of Cason Wallace. Pacers ball.
You just don’t see this kind of stuff in the NBA. Except when it comes to McConnell, who plays so freaking hard that at this point the only thing that might be keeping him from being a starting NBA point guard is that nobody can play this hard for 30-35 minutes a game. You can only redline an engine for so long.
Still, at this point, to continue categorizing McConnell as this all-hustling, little engine that could is a disservice to what is clearly a unique and extremely effective skillset. I mean the guy is out here crossing over the league MVP and putting Caruso, one of the best defenders on the planet, on skates. Try to pick him up full court, and he blows by you. Try to back him down, and he strips you. His 3-point shot might remind you of someone trying to stuff a full-size suitcase into the overhead bin, but he’s made three out of the five he’s taken in the Finals and he’s at 42% for the playoffs.
“It sounds redundant when I say it, but I’m just trying to do my job,” McConnell said after Game 6.
Suffice it to say, McConnell is doing his job. And then some. Imagine, a guy who wasn’t even drafted a decade ago is registering on Finals MVP boards. He’s a 140-1 long shot at FanDuel (as if long odds are anything new to him), but he’s on the board, and he’s honestly not a bad bet if you want to take a flier on a crazy Game 7.
Because honestly, what isn’t crazy about this whole Pacers story? They’ve won three games in these playoffs when trailing by seven points inside the final minute. They were 66-1 to win the title before the season started and 80-1 before the playoffs.
No team that has gone on to win a championship has ever started the season at anywhere near those odds. The closest were the 2014-15 Warriors, who started at 28-to-1 but came down to less than 2-to-1 before the playoffs. The Pacers’ odds got worse even after securing as top-four seed.
It makes for such a fitting pairing with McConnell. They are a match made in underdog heaven, and together, they have moved within one win of securing the most improbable championship in NBA history.