{"id":67039,"date":"2025-06-23T12:58:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T11:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/?p=67039"},"modified":"2025-06-23T12:58:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T11:58:49","slug":"t-j-mcconnell-apologizes-to-pacers-fans-after-heartbreaking-loss-in-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/t-j-mcconnell-apologizes-to-pacers-fans-after-heartbreaking-loss-in-nba-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"T.J. McConnell Apologizes to Pacers Fans After Heartbreaking Loss in NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Indiana Pacers waited for 25 years to reach the NBA Finals and forced the series to Game 7 where they suffered a 101-91 loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It has been a remarkable season for Indiana as they came close to their first-ever NBA championship glory but fell short. It was the first Game 7 in the NBA Finals since 2016 and Thunder had the last laugh. <\/p><p><\/p><p>After the heartbreaking loss, T.J. McConnell, Pacers guard shared his emotions in the post-game and apologized to the fans. The 33-year-old led Indiana with 16 points off the bench on 8-for-12 shooting after the devastating injury to star guard Tyrese Haliburton. McConnell averaged 12 points per game in the series. <\/p><blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DLOqHRqORfY\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\"><div style=\"padding:16px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DLOqHRqORfY\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'> <div style=\" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\"> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; 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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;\">View this post on Instagram<\/div><\/div><div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\"><div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: auto;\"> <div style=\" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div><\/div><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\"><\/div><\/div><\/a><p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DLOqHRqORfY\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>A post shared by CBS Sports (@cbssports)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Karen Atkeson Confronts Cameraman Recording Pacers Guard&rsquo;s Emotional Moment Post-Game <\/h2><p>T.J. McConnell got emotional after his team&rsquo;s heartbreaking defeat in the NBA Finals. After the final buzzer, the Pacers guard walked through the tunnel. McConnell was pretty emotional and cameraman followed him to capture the raw emotions of the guard. Indiana star met hugged a woman, later identified not as his mother, and shared a comfort moment. <\/p><p>The ESPN crew zoomed in when both hugged each other and tried to record the moment. The cameraman was quickly shooed away by Karen Atkeson, Pacers vice president of player relations. She was pretending to be the mother of McConnell, Shelly McConnell.  <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An ESPN camera got a little too close to T.J. McConnell after the Pacers fell in Game 7 to the Thunder and is told to stop filming. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/a8s9IhHq5G\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>pic.twitter.com\/a8s9IhHq5G<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/awfulannouncing\/status\/1936983844810600915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>June 23, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure><p><em>&ldquo;Stop, Stop!&rdquo;<\/em> Atkeson told the cameraman. The clip later went viral and fans blasted on ESPN crew. <em>&ldquo;Why can&rsquo;t cameramen give players some space after a tough loss?&rdquo;<\/em> a fan said after watching the footage. Recording the sorrow of defeat and breaking the privacy should be considered wrong. <\/p><p><em>Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"mm-layout mm-layout-type-post mm-layout-slot4\">\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>T.J. McConnell got emotional after his team&#8217;s heartbreaking defeat in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":67069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mux_skip_reasons":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[865,5480,8011],"class_list":["post-67039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-nba-finals","tag-t-j-mcconnell"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>T.J. 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