One of my most vibrant memories is coverage The American Professional League Monitor TJ MCCONNELLL Shoot 3 throws in the gym outside the site. It was the year 2018 and 76 They were in Miami playing heat In the first round of the qualifiers. I was there to meet the six -coach, Brett Brown, but I found myself more interested in these small shots raised in the background.
And yes, Lifting It is the correct word. In a blatant contradiction with most of the American Professional League players who raise 30 throats like them throwing a paper jammed in the trash, McConnell seemed to use every ounce of strength that he can simply mobilize to get the ball to the edge. Poling ball may have been shot. It looked naturally natural, like a man who is called from the stands at the end of the first half to shoot a gift certificate and suddenly realizes that 23 feet and nine -inch are much further than what appears on TV.
I remember I was thinking: “This man is a player in the American Professional League?”
Quickly forward seven years, and McConnell is much more than the American Mediterranean League player. He has become one of the best players in the league. It is on a $ 45 million contract that suddenly feels like a deal for a person holding the lead in the American Professional League finals, sometimes he holds this Pesrez The team that was wax on Thursday night thunder Clean the ground with 108-91 game 6 revenge.
Blue, petals. The game 7 on Sunday.
At this rate, McConnell, who scored 12 points, is nine rebounds, six assists and four theft on Thursday, to play a big role in that as well. This is not just something once at the time, after all. McConnell received many of the first three voices of the sixth men of the year last season, and he was in a kind of conflict throughout this season, as the average points of 53 % of the field and 42 % of the range of 3 points.
Against OKC, specifically, he went to full pork as the first player since Jason Kid in 2002 to score at least 30 points, 15 passes and eight theft during the first three games of the finals. In winning Pacers 3, he became the first player on the bench never For cards at least 10 points, five passes and five theft in one finals game.
It turned out that this was just an opening work of what McConnell did in the game 5 when he picked up to injury Teres Haleporton Who missed all his six shots, poured into 18 points, including 13 in a race in the third quarter that was a curse near Pacers fans who started working on a statue. The Thunder won that match, which he calmed shortly from McConnell Mania, but the regiment returned to full power on Thursday as McConnell dug his latest place in the history of the American Professional League – the first player on the bench with at least 60 points, 25 passes and 15 followers in a series of finals.
“It is incredible, man, I don’t have words. It is the great white hope.”
seriously. This is the popular hero. Let us be honest: the way that McConnell Appear It is definitely the collaboration of intolerance. Obviously, he is an incredible player, but personally, I will be cursed if it is regardless of the number of times I see-and I do not think I am alone here-I am still amazed every time I watch it.
The question arises, if this young man who has no height, and there is no length, and there is no lifting, and with the standards of the American Professional League, can seem on his way to this shot apparently.
It is clear that McConnell’s transformation and feeling to create a second space is a real talent, as much as the voices, like me, try to wonder where everything comes from. More importantly, Rick Carlel gives him the freedom to preserve the Cellan Steve Nash alive as long as it takes him to play.
He who injects a lot of confidence in a man like McConnell, who already has a higher use rate that Haleporton gets and has obtained this type of independent freedom by constantly creating buckets – not only for himself but for his teammates, as evidence through this amazing whip in favor Pascal Siyam For 3 angle in game 5.
McConnell initially dug his place in the American Professional League as a perfect loud man, and still does all these things like a crazy man. Man everywhere. It is on the floor to get loose balls. Plash in counterattacks. Customary points of the full court. Capture internal corridors such as a routine matter that must be done in the American Professional League.
For fear you thought it was once, it was not. He does these things all the time.
And what about another one for good. This may be the most fiercest ever – ten cents sick to cut off the peak followed by internal corridors theft and saving later from Cason Wallace. Pesrez ball.
You only see this type of things in the American Professional League. Except when it comes to McConnell, which plays so difficult that at this point, the only thing that might prevent him from being the American Professional League goalkeeper is that no one can play this strongly for 30-35 minutes in the game. You can only the red engine line for a long time.
However, at this point, to continue the McConnell classification as this small engine that can be harmful to what is clearly it is a group of very unique and effective skills. I mean that the man is here crossing through the league MVP and the status of Caruso, one of the best defenders on this planet, on the skis. Try to accompany him from the full court, and be hit by you. Try to retract it, and disable you. His 3 -point shot may remind you of a person trying to place a full -size bag in the science box, but he made three out of the five who took it in the finals, which is 42 % in the qualifiers.
“It seems too much when I say that, but I just try to do my job,” said McConnell after match 6.
It is enough to say, McConnell does his job. Then some. Imagine that the man who was not formulated a decade ago is to register on the final MVP panels. It is a shot 140-1 Vanduel (As if the long difficulties were new to him), but it is on the plane, and it is frankly not a bad bet if you want to take a pilot in a crazy game 7.
Because frankly, what no Crazy about the whole story of Pisrez? They won three games in these qualifiers when they lag behind seven points in the last minute. They were 66-1 to win the title before the start of the season and 80-1 before the qualifiers.
No team started winning the season’s championship anywhere near those difficulties. The closest were 2014-15 WarriorsWhich started from 28 to 1, but it reached less than 2 to 1 before the qualifiers. Possibilities have occurred worst Even after getting a four -seed seed.
It makes this appropriate conjugation with Maconel. It is a match made in the weakened paradise, and they moved together as part of one victory with securing the most unlikely championship in the history of the American Professional League.
