The game was over. The confetti wasn’t for them. As the Oklahoma City Thunder celebrated their first NBA championship on their home floor, the Indiana Pacers began the long, quiet walk back to the locker room. For a team that had defied expectations all season, this was the end of the road. And for T.J. McConnell the sting of the 103-91 loss was etched on his face.

After Tyrese Haliburton went down with a devastating Achilles injury in the first quarter, it was McConnell who single-handedly tried to will his team to victory. He was a force of nature. In fact, for about 13 minutes in the second half, T.J. McConnell was the only Pacer other than Pascal Siakam to score. He finished the game with a team-high 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists, but it wasn’t enough. As he walked off the court, head down, the weight of the moment was palpable.

He wasn’t alone, though. Walking beside him was his mother, Shelly, her arm wrapped around him in a protective embrace. But in the world of modern sports media, there are no private moments. As an ESPN camera crew closed in, zooming in on their faces, Shelly McConnell had had enough. She turned, her face a mask of a mother’s fierce, protective instinct, and gestured at the camera. “Stop!” she yelled.

But just as one camera was being pushed away, another captured a different kind of interaction, one that spoke volumes without a single word being heard. As McConnell continued his slow walk toward the tunnel, another figure stepped into his path. It was Reggie Miller. The greatest Pacer of all time. The man who knows a thing or two about going through a Finals heartbreak. Miller didn’t offer a soundbite. He just wrapped his arms around the young point guard who had poured his heart out for his old team. He pulled him in close and patted him on the back.

It was a moment of deep, unspoken understanding. For a player who has spent his entire career fighting for respect, that quiet moment of validation from a franchise legend said everything about his journey.

From afterthought to “the great white hope” — the evolution of TJ McConnell

Earlier in the series, after a dominant McConnell performance, Haliburton gave his backup a nickname that captured the almost mythical status he had earned. He called him “the ‘great white hope’ of Indiana,” a nickname once held by another Pacers legend, Larry Bird. It was not only a peek inside the locker room but also a clear sign of the deep respect McConnell has earned from his superstar teammate.

And that respect is well-deserved. McConnell’s performance in this series was, quite literally, one for the record books. In game 6 of the finals, he set a new NBA Finals record for the most combined points, assists, rebounds, and steals by a bench player by reaching 68 points, 28 assists, 19 rebounds, and 14 steals. This is the same guy who went undrafted in 2015, a player who had to fight his way onto a 76ers team that was famous for trying to lose. His journey from “The Process” to the NBA Finals is a testament to what his old coach, Brett Brown, once called a pure “passion… to play the game.”

That passion was on full display throughout the playoffs. Whenever the Pacers looked lost, it was McConnell who provided the spark. And his impact wasn’t just felt by his teammates; it was recognized by the very best to ever play the game. In a pre-game analysis, LeBron James singled out McConnell as the key to Indiana’s chances. “You look at TJ McConnell, he’s not the tallest or fastest guy, but you don’t know what he’s going to do… He’s the key reason there’s a Game 7,” LeBron said.

But if you ask T.J. himself, he’s just doing his job. He’s always been the underdog, the guy who has had to prove everyone wrong. Before Game 7, he talked about what this moment meant to him. “To play to the last day possible of the season, Game 7, you dream about that as a kid,” he said. And it wasn’t just his dream. After a Game 6 win, his father, Tim, crashed his live TV interview, his voice cracking with emotion. “I can’t be more proud to say, I have a son in the NBA and I have a daughter in the WNBA,” he said. “This is a dream come true, and I’m going to OKC for my son to play in the championship game to win the world championship.”

That dream didn’t end with a championship, but it did end with something just as valuable: the undeniable respect of his peers, his city, and a franchise legend. The embrace from Reggie Miller wasn’t just a consolation prize; it was a confirmation. T.J. McConnell, the undrafted kid from Pittsburgh, is a Pacer, through and through.