Hometown hero
NBA champ Connaughton inspires students at SJP
DANVERS — For Pat Connaughton, returning to St. John’s Prep has always been a surreal experience. After all, the small campus in Danvers is where his dream of playing basketball at the highest of levels truly started to become a possibility.
However, Friday’s visit topped the list for the 2011 graduate. As the Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard and Arlington native spoke to athletes, he did so proudly — as an NBA champion.
“It started here,” Connaughton said. “For me, I owe a lot of the success I have had to St. John’s Prep, and to the people in the community that it kind of breeds.”
During the NBA Finals this past July, Connaughton averaged 9.2 points per contest for Milwaukee, highlighted by a performance in Game 5 where he finished with 14 points and six rebounds during a 123-119 win over the Phoenix Suns. The Bucks would go on to win the championship three days later on July 20.
“I think it’s kind of similar to when we won the state title here in 2011,” Connaughton said. “In that moment, confetti comes down, you get to hold the trophy, you’re there with your team, you know you’ve won. But it gets even better as time goes on, because no one can take that away from you.”
Connaughton was in attendance at St. John’s Prep to speak with students about the O’Brien Family-Student Leadership Initiative, a program founded by University of Alabama offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Bill O’Brien along with his wife Colleen. The foundation affords speakers and mentors an avenue to develop and enhance leadership opportunities among young people and adults who mentor and advise them.
Connaughton emphasized the benefits of playing multiple sports while growing up, rather than directing attention to one specifically. Those familiar with his story can understand why.
After a stellar athletic career at St. John’s Prep, Connaughton went on to play both basketball as well as baseball at Notre Dame. He was later selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the fourth round of the 2014 MLB Draft, but decided to forgo the opportunity to chase a basketball career.
In 2015, Connaughton was selected in the second round of the NBA Draft by the Brooklyn Nets, then traded to the Portland Trail Blazers. In 2018, he signed with Milwaukee, where he has played ever since.
“One of the goals of the foundation for me is to revamp how youth sports have become,” Connaughton told reporters. “I think youth sports has become a business. I think a lot of the motivation behind youth sports is on the monetary side. The kids’ best interest is not always first. If you’re on an AAU program in the spring, it behooves you to make more money if you could do camps in the summer, do stuff in the fall, do stuff in the winter and in turn, they use that idea that if you play (one) thing more, you’re going to get better at it.
“I think at a young age … playing multiple sports exposes you to different muscle groups, and it exposes you to different movement. It exposes you to different people. It does so many things to help you, not just with becoming more athletic, but with being more well-rounded, and (it gives you) the support that you are going to want to be the most successful.”
Over the years, Connaughton has continued to maintain a strong relationship with officials from St. John’s Prep. This is especially true for the school’s headmaster, Ed Hardiman, who watched him grow from a young athlete with promise, to an NBA star.
“I think our young people will absolutely walk away from today with the lessons and values Pat shared with them and put those into action in their own lives,” said Hardiman. “As a young man himself, who has seen early and impressive success, Pat remains humble. That means a lot to our student-athletes and they pick up on the fact that despite being an NBA champion Pat cares about each and every one of them. He has worked hard to get where he is and believes that every day young people who have big dreams and ambitions ahead of them must find ways to grow and improve themselves to achieve those dreams.”