“I mean, I certainly wouldn’t be here without him.” You hear athletes thank their loved ones, especially dads all the time. It’s almost a cliché. But when T.J. McConnell says it, you can just feel it hits differently. And during a wild, must-win Game 6 of the NBA Finals—a game where the Pacers absolutely dismantled the Thunder to force a legendary Game 7—the ESPN broadcast crew gave us all a little story that explains everything about the Pacers’ gritty floor general.
The energy in Gainbridge Fieldhouse was insane. With their season on the line, down 3-2, the Pacers were fighting for their lives. And right in the middle of it all was T. J. McConnell, doing what he does best: creating absolute chaos. He was diving for loose balls, grabbing rebounds over guys a foot taller than him, and running the offense with the poise of a seasoned vet. His final stat line of 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists doesn’t even come close to capturing the energy he injected into the game.
Then came the moment on the broadcast. As the camera panned to his dad, Tim, in the crowd, the announcers shared this incredible insight into their relationship. “There’s the dad,” one broadcaster began. “I love when he said that his dad was so hard on him when he played for him in high school. Soon as he went to college… he flipped the coach switch off and became his dad again. Everything was encouraging.” But next came the part that will really get you.
“He [T. J. McConnell] was surprised,” the second announcer added. “He would call his father thinking that he was going to be a coach—and he was just dad.”
Imagine that. You’re a D-1 athlete, you just had a tough game, and you call home bracing for your hard-nosed coach to break down every single mistake. But instead, you just get your father, there to listen and support you. That surprising shift in their dynamic clearly shaped the player we see today.
(This is a developing story…)
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