THE 2006 SOCCER season at Chartiers Valley High School, about 10 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, wasn't a good one for Tim McConnell. The head coach of the highly successful basketball team since 1993, McConnell saw his starting point guard for that coming season tear an ACL during a soccer game. A season of high hopes and promise got a little murkier with the injury and he, somewhat reluctantly, had to get through the season relying heavily on a scrawny, 5-4, 104-pound freshman who shared the same last name but went by T.J.
Slideshow Cooney: 76ers' McConnell has always been driven to succeed
"He was going to be a guy that I could bring off the bench to hit some shots and give us a bit of a boost," Tim said of his son, now the 76ers' starting point guard.