Timothy John McConnell is a legend in the city of Indianapolis.
He's also a legend in Philadelphia and Tucson, as well as in Pittsburgh, where he's one of the greatest high school basketball players in the city's history.
No matter what city the 6-foot-1 point guard winds up in, he endears himself to the basketball loving fans there and leaves as a legend. Just ask an Indiana Pacers fan what they think about T.J. McConnell following the team's Game 7 victory over the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden, and they might tell you they're naming their first-born child after him.
There aren't supposed to be players like McConnell in the NBA — a relatively tiny point guard who essentially refuses to shoot the ball from behind the three-point line. There were only 29 players in the NBA this season listed at 6-foot-1 or shorter, and of those 29, McConnell attempted the third-fewest three-pointers per 100 possessions, per Stathead. The only two with fewer attempts than him were Marquis Nowell — who played only a single game for the Toronto Raptors this season — and T.J.'s former Sixers teammate Ish Smith, who essentially serves as diet-McConnell in his style of play.
During his four combined college seasons, first at Duquesne, then at Arizona, McConnell never recorded a single dunk, per BartTorvik. He's also one of the select few players who's never dunked in an NBA game despite being in the midst of his ninth full season in the league.
At a certain point, you start to run out of ideas on how this is supposed to work. A small point guard who doesn't shoot threes and can't dunk in a game sounds like he'd struggle to make his college team, let alone an NBA conference finalist.
And yet, McConnell is coming off a series where he averaged just under 12 points per game off the bench, the Pacers finished as a +31 in his 144 minutes played, and he essentially cemented himself as a basketball icon in the entire state of Indiana.
McConnell is at all times aware of what he can't do, and aware of what he does better than almost everyone on the court. McConnell has a devastatingly quick first step, particularly toward his strong right hand, yet he also possesses a strong, wide frame that allows him to absorb contact and finish through the chests of any smaller, quicker foe who might be able to keep pace with him. Additionally, few players in the NBA do a better job keeping their dribble alive than McConnell.
Not since Steve Nash has a diminutive point guard done such a remarkable job of refusing to pick up his dribble and give the defense a break.
While McConnell has always found a way to contribute to winning no matter which level of basketball he's playing at, this level of scoring aggression from him wasn't always evident. Throughout his four seasons of college basketball, he only scored 20 or more points during five of his 139 career games, and he only attempted more than 15 shots in a game twice. More often than not, McConnell relished being an offensive distributor and a defensive disruptor at the collegiate level, only hunting for his own shot as a secondary option.
If you told someone a decade ago that he'd establish himself as one of the most dangerous pick-and-roll and isolation scorers off the bench in the entire NBA by 2024, they'd try to bar you from speaking in a public setting ever again.
However, you could see the bones of what McConnell would become if you watched closely. Even if it was only in brief moments, he flashed what he could do when you gave him a runway and let him cook.
McConnell has two outlier traits that have allowed him to reach such incredible success despite being an undrafted small point guard who rarely shoots from deep. The first is his body control. Few people on earth are better able to maintain their strength, balance, and coordination while mid-air than McConnell. It's how (and why) he always hangs in the air for a prolonged period of time for his trademark pull-up jumpers. It's how he's able to finish through body bumps at the rim at absurd angles. It's how he seemingly can always get back to his right hand despite the fact that every NBA defender knows it's coming.
The other outlier trait McConnell possesses? Well, that would be the fact that he's a lunatic on the court. (This is a compliment).
"Fight every day like it's your last, that's how I try to play," McConnell told HoopsHype back in 2017.
He emerged from the doldrums of the "The Process" Sixers team that went 10-72 back in 2016 because of his competitive fire and relentless defense, pressing point guards for all 94 feet no matter the score. Before there was Jose "Grant Theft" Alvarado sneaking up on ball handlers from behind, there was McConnell, ripping the ball away from unsuspecting players in the backcourt throughout the late 2010s.
Most Sixers fans were willing to lay their life on the line for McConnell by the 2019 season, and if you watch all the steals in the clip below, it's easy to see why:
Flash forward to this past Sunday afternoon and T.J. is still doing this stuff all these years later.
It doesn't matter that he's more than just a defensive pest at this point, that he's the sixth or seventh man for the best Indiana Pacers team in a decade. He still fights for every point and every inch of the court like it's the last chance he'll ever get to step on the hardwood.
5 points in 5 seconds 😈
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 19, 2024
the no-look pass from Tyrese Haliburton.
the steal by T.J. McConnell.
the and-1 by Aaron Nesmith. pic.twitter.com/pTo70Zriw9
McConnell is far from a flawless player. There's sure to be times during the Eastern Conference Finals when a team as deadly as the Celtics look to expose and weaponize his weaknesses against Indy. Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis will likely match up with him in spurts, roaming off him and daring him to shoot those threes he usually only launches in reluctance. Likewise, the jump in point-of-attack defense going from New York to Boston is steep. Derrick White and Jrue Holiday do a much, much better job staying in front of drives and contesting shots at the rim than Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo. There's a chance this series goes very poorly for McConnell and his team.
The good news is that no matter how it goes, it's never going to change McConnell's mindset, what he already did for the Pacers, and how he plays for them moving forward. This little lunatic who somehow knows how to control his body and his dribble better than everyone else on the court has been a hero for every team he's ever played for. Odds are that'll also be the case for any team graced with his presence in the future, because he's never going to stop fighting like it's his last day on the court.
