McConnell ‘steals’ spot in history
Ex-WPIAL star sets NBA record
T.J. McConnell has long had a little sneakiness to him. He was famous for a few tricks during those family breakfasts at a restaurant.
“Matty, look at that person over there,” T.J. would say to his little brother.
Poor little Matty. He would turn his head and T.J. would swipe a few pieces of bacon off of his plate.
Many years later, life for T.J. McConnell imitates those breakfasts. Only now, McConnell is swiping the bacon of NBA players. And he’s famous for it.
In fact, he’s in the NBA record book for it.
Imagine a point guard from suburban Pittsburgh, who starred in the WPIAL, earning a spot in the NBA record book. But that’s what McConnell did Wednesday night when the backup point guard
for the Indiana Pacers set an NBA record for steals in a half with nine against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
To top it off, McConnell finished the game with a tripledouble. His 10 steals were one away from the NBA record for a game. He made all eight of his shots and had 13 assists. He was only the 11th player in NBA history to have a tripledouble with points, assists and steals, and the first since Mookie Blaylock in 1998. He also was the first to ever do it coming off the bench.
McConnell went into the game second in the NBA in steals. Now, he is first. But nine steals in a half? Someone had to pinch McConnell at halftime.
“After the first couple, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, that was a heck of a sequence right there,’” McConnell said in a phone interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Then one of my teammates came up to me at halftime. I’ll leave all the swear words out of it, but he pretty much said, ‘Yo, you have nine steals at halftime.’ I just said, ‘No way.’ ”
After the game, McConnell’s Indiana Pacers teammates celebrated by giving him a water cooler shower when he got to the locker room. By the time he got to the team bus, his phone was blowing up with text messages from family and friends to NBA players. Joel Embiid, a former teammate with the
Philadelphia 76ers, called McConnell,as did J.J. Redick, another former 76ers teammate.
As the game wore on in the second half, McConnell was fully aware he was near a triple-double. (He also had one with the 76ers in 2018). Did he think about it? If you know McConnell at all, you know his mind was elsewhere.
“It was on winning,”
McConnell said. “Obviously, it’s all well and good the way I played, but does that really matter if you lose?”
The Pacers won, 114-111. Matty McConnell sent a text to his brother after the game.
“I just told him he still amazes me with some of the things he does on the court,” Matty McConnell said.
T.J. McConnell’s tripledouble and his NBA record are two more chapters in one of the more amazing success stories of a Western Pennsylvania basketball player.
“I’m serious. To this day, when I’m watching him, there’s times I still can’t believe that’s him out there in the NBA,” Matty McConnell said. “I mean, to say you’re brother set an NBA record and leads the NBA in steals, how many brothers can say that?”
For the season, McConnell is leading the NBA in steals at 2.0. He is in the top 20 in assists at 6.8 a game and is averaging 6.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and shooting 52.5%. His playing time continues to increase under first-year Pacers coach Nate Bjorkgren. McConnell, in his second season with Indiana after four years in Philadelphia, is averaging 31.7 minutes in the past 10 games.
But maybe no one should be surprised at McConnell’s steals. It’s T.J. being T.J. Besides becoming only the second player in WPIAL history to score 1,000 points in a season as a senior at Chartiers Valley, he also averaged 6.8 steals that season.
“I feel like defense is all about how hard you play and you obviously have to do your homework,” McConnell said. “But there’s a lot of instinct to it as well. … You have to try and create angles to try and get steals, but you also have to have to have that instinct.”
McConnell is in the final year of a two-year contract with the Pacers. In a sense, he is playing the rest of this season for a contract. With the way he’s played lately, and with the record-breaking, triple-double performance on Wednesday, teams undoubtedly will take notice.
“I feel like [the steals record] won’t truly hit me until maybe I’m done playing,” McConnell said. “Maybe I can talk about it with my son one day.”