TJ McConnell and Jason Terry BOTH awarded Best NBA Teammate

This past week, the NBA has announced the players voted by each team as “Best Teammate” in 2017, two former Arizona Basketball players were honored.

The underrated TJ McConnell (Philadelphia Sixers) and ’97 National Championship legend and NBA veteran, Jason “The Jet” Terry (Milwaukee Bucks) has been voted Best Teammate this past season by their NBA teams.

If we look back in time, TJ and Terry became two of the better and most unselfish guards  to ever step foot on an Arizona Basketball court, and it is here where they became such great ambassadors of the game that still is carried with them today

Both of these players are beloved by every “die-hard” Cats fan, and they will continue to be in years to come.

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While TJ was unable to help Miller reach College Basketball’s pinnacle, an NBA Championship, Terry and Lute were able to do so. However, TJ was close in his two years as he and Miller knocked on the door in both seasons. 

History will show that there have been, and there will continue be quite a few one and done’s who play at Arizona, but it is players like Terry and McConnell who are a rare breed. These two have helped keep Arizona well respected by NBA executives. Now aptly dubbed ‘A Players Program,’ we are confident in ting alumni will continue this tradition for a long time to come.

We can imagine that it still eats at McConnell that he wasn’t able to cut down the nets to give Miller his first Final Four and National Championship. His time will come though. It took Bill Self 15 years of coaching before he made his first Final Four.

Lute put Arizona on the map starting in the 80s, recruiting players like; Sean Elliot and Steve Kerr, building a strong tradition that carried into the 90s with players like Miles Simon, Mike Bibby, Gilbert Arenas and, and of course, Jason Terry. Terry was one of his all-time favorite players to coach. Olson did a pretty good job of coaching Terry as he is still playing in the NBA and continues to add to his already outstanding NBA career resume.

In 1997, the leading returning scorer, Miles Simon, was academically ineligible for the first half of the season. Therefore, the then Miles Simon, was academically ineligible for the first half of the season. Therefore, the then sophomore guard from Washington was asked to come in and start after averaging less than 10 minutes per game as a freshman. The legend of “The Jet” came sooner than expected, as he had to grow up and develop a lot sooner in his college career than he anticipated. Terry teamed up with another star guard in Bibby, so when Simon returned from suspension, Arizona had a loaded backcourt with Simon, Terry, and Bibby.

“He said ‘Coach, put me on the bench. I’ll be the sixth man,’” Olson said. “I think he knew he was going to be in the game for the last ten minutes anyway. He wouldn’t start the game but he would finish the game all the time.” -Lute Olson

This is where we see how selfless Terry was. Terry has always put the team first and look at what kind of basketball career he has put together. Showing how great a teammate Terry was, he approached Olson and said to play him off the bench as the sixth man to insert Simon into the starting lineup.

From then on, The Jet has embraced the role as a Sixth Man, playing a significant role in every team he has played on since he won a National Championship at Arizona, an NBA Championship, and Sixth Man award in 2009.

Looking to our more recent, beloved point guard TJ McConnell, TJ has always been underrated since playing days at Duquesne. If there is one thing Cats fans know, is that TJ was not underrated in Tucson.

From the moment he stepped on the floor, everyone knew he was going to be special! He plays the game with toughness and embodies the point guard role, of just being completely selfless. He was a natural-born leader (which has now translated into the NBA), and fierce competitiveness, refusing to lose. Those are all qualities you love in a player, but the one that stands out the most is how unselfish he is and how much of a great teammate he has always been.

TJ had a great group around him, and he knew his role on the team. He would distribute the ball first to playmakers like Nick Johnson, Aaron Gordon, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and Stanley Johnson.

That’s not a bad college group of athletes to dish the ball to and TJ knew that. If he had an open look, yes he would take it and usually he would come through. But he was always trying to find the open man, or the better shot rather than settling. Ask any player to play with TJ, and they’ll tell you the same thing which is why the 76ers (perhaps unsurprisingly) have voted him as “best teammate” in 2017. Fans in Philly are also on board as they have learned to love the undersized floor general.

Hall of Fame Coach Lute Olson has started something very special here in Tucson. Even with the rocky transition from Olson to now Miller, everything has, fortunately, ended up fantastic. We got an exceptional coach in Miller, who could be well on his way of becoming equally as good as Lute.

Miller has kept the tradition alive, and since taking the reins of a power college basketball program, he is ensuring Arizona Basketball to be a force for some time. Olson is the “Architect” of Arizona basketball and its rich history of producing NBA talent, and Miller is the next great coach among us.

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At Zona Zealots, we’re thankful Miller has kept “A Players Program” alive and has continued the winning tradition and elite level recruiting of high character guys. Miller and Olson are great friends, and Arizona basketball is certainly one giant family from former players like Jason “The Jet” Terry, to newer players like TJ McConnell. Bear Down, Arizona!