Was he an excellent point guard? Absolutely not. Do we love him? Absolutely.
TJ McConnell is an OKAY NBA guard. He gets a lot of steals and has pretty good floor vision, but he wouldn’t start for most any team in the league. He average offensively and only slightly above average defensively given his drawbacks at his size.
But I think you would be hard pressed to find a Pacers fan that doesn’t absolutely like TJ to the core. And why do we love TJ?
He seems to have genuine joy with his teammates. And I think he reminds many of us of ourselves. Too short to relate to many of the NBA players, there is something really relatable about McConnell that makes us feel like he is an “every-man” and that maybe if we hustled as hard as TJ we could have been NBA players too.
Or perhaps it’s because he hustles and fights tooth and nail on the court. His patented move is the backcourt steal after all.
In any case, he absolutely deserves to start as the all-time fan favorite point guard.
What did you think of our list? Who did we miss? Let us know in the comments below.
Indiana Pacers: 50 greatest Pacers players [2023 update]
The Indiana Pacers are a storied franchise, even though many casual NBA fans may not realize it. But back in the ABA days, the Pacers were a force.