On his campus visit, NBA Champion Pat Connaughton ’11 showcased the league’s title trophy and urged students to pursue excellence in everything they do
Pat Connaughton ’11 has his life scheduled down to the minute these days and that’s not even because he just won an NBA title. The 6-foot-5, 209-pound shooting guard, who graduated early from the University of Notre Dame with a business management degree and Cum Laude honors, co-manages his own real estate development business and serves as president of his own philanthropic With Us Foundation. But even as he actively prepares for his seventh season as a pro, the Eagles’ all-time leading scorer made sure one his precious few days with the 2021 Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy included a trip to campus. Candids from today can be found on SmugMug.
“It’s great to be back—this is where it all started,” said the 28-year-old Milwaukee Bucks guard during a brief session with Boston-area media this afternoon. “I owe a lot to St. John’s, not just for what the school taught me, though that’s something it does very well, but for the platform and support it gave me in my pursuit of excellence.”
Connaughton visited St. John’s throughout the day to engage with students and families and to lead a conversation that tipped off the school’s annual O’Brien Family Student-Athlete Leadership Initiative. The program is funded by 1988 Prep alumnus Bill O’Brien, currently the offensive coordinator for the University of Alabama football team. The collaborative, student- and coach-focused program is designed to develop and enhance leadership opportunities for both young people and the adults who mentor and advise them.
During a Q&A session held with student-athletes on Glatz Field inside Cronin Memorial Stadium, Connaughton urged attendees to follow their dreams, to expect to encounter adversity and to bring a competitive mindset to everything they do.
“I have 24 hours in the day and I have the ability to manage my time because of what St. John’s Prep taught me,” he said. “To stand here today having won an NBA championship, the biggest point I can drive home to you right now is: I was once in your shoes. There are going to be people out there who don’t believe in what your dreams are and what your goals are, and that’s OK. That’s part of learning, that’s part of finding fuel for the fire. Things will come up in your athletic career and in life that don’t go your way, but how do you respond to them? How do you find the time on a daily basis to put your aspirations first, develop a clear vision and work hard at the things that are going to help you accomplish those goals?”
In 2020-21, Connaughton posted career-high per-game averages in minutes (22.4), three pointers made and rebounds (4.8). In the Bucks 23-game NBA postseason run, he averaged 23.7 minutes and 4.4 rebounds per game, shooting 39 percent from behind the three-point arc and 86 percent from the free throw line to average 6.9 points per game. He averaged 30 minutes per game in the NBA Finals, often matching up against future Hall of Famer Chris Paul or two-time All-Star Devin Booker, one of the league’s top scorers.
“Pat’s obviously reached the highest heights in the world of athletics, but around this campus, he’s just as well-known for his humility and compassion,” said St. John’s Headmaster Ed Hardiman P’19, ’21, ’26. “His real estate development firm has focused on projects across the country that are revitalizing underserved sections of metropolitan areas. His With Us Foundation is committed to creating access to athletics for all kids, instilling life skills, values and wellness habits through sport. Pat is celebrated at St. John’s and by NBA fans across the country for his abilities on the court, but the fact that he’s living his life in service of the common good is even more impressive to our school community.”
PREPARATION MEETS OPPORTUNITY
Connaughton remains the Prep’s all-time leading scorer with 1,713 career points and, thanks to a spectacular summer of 2010 on the AAU circuit, he earned a full ride to Notre Dame, where he played both baseball and basketball. Before matriculating in South Bend, he was a late-round draft pick by the San Diego Padres (38th round, selection 1,136).
The Arlington native became a two-year basketball captain at Notre Dame and played in more games (139) than any Fighting Irish player in history. He concluded his career as the eighth ND player with better than 1,400 points and 800 rebounds. Meanwhile, his 11-11 record and 3.55 ERA on the mound in 30 starts for Notre Dame (in which he never surrendered a home run) put him near the top of the Orioles’ prospect pipeline. In the summer of 2014, he posted a 2.45 ERA in 14.2 innings for the Aberdeen IronBirds, Baltimore’s short season affiliate in the New York-Penn League.
As a college senior, Connaughton averaged 12.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists, playing power forward for the Irish and shooting 42.3 percent from behind the arc to lead ND to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Championships. That production, coupled with the extraordinary metrics he put up at the NBA Draft Combine—44-inch max vertical leap, 37.5-inch standing vertical, 10.4-second lane agility drill and 3.2-second 3/4-court sprint, all of which ranked No. 1 in his draft class—got teams’ attention. The Brooklyn Nets made him the 41st pick overall (second round) in the 2015 National Basketball Association draft and he was subsequently traded to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Connaughton had to transform his body and up his game to have a chance at anything other than a short career in the NBA. Then came more adversity. Even after averaging a career-high 18.1 minutes and 5.4 points while playing in a team-best 82 games for Portland during his third pro season, the Blazers did not tender him an offer and he became an unrestricted free agent in July of 2018.
He wasn’t out of work for long after Portland let him go. With a new coach in Mike Budenholzer and a second-year GM in Jon Horst, the Bucks, who were looking to build a championship culture just four years after losing 67 games and having produced their first winning season in six years in 2017, sought out Connaughton for both his game and his approach to the game.
The Bucks won 60 games and reached the Eastern Conference Finals in Connaughton’s first season with Milwaukee, during which he averaged 20.7 minutes per game. The team was on pace to win 70 games when COVID-19 hit. A bizarre 11-week postseason in the 2020 NBA bubble ended prematurely in the conference semifinals; Connaughton averaged 18.6 minutes. In 2021, it all came together. A franchise that had won just 15 games seven years earlier won 16 postseason games and captured the world championship. Connaughton averaged a career-high 22.8 minutes in the regular season.
In 2020-21, he posted career-high per-game averages in minutes (22.4), three pointers made and rebounds (4.8). In the Bucks 23-game NBA postseason run, he averaged 23.7 minutes and 4.4 rebounds per game, shooting 39 percent from behind the three-point arc and 86 percent from the free throw line to average 6.9 points per game. He averaged 30 minutes per game in the NBA Finals, often matching up against future Hall of Famer Chris Paul or two-time All-Star Devin Booker, one of the league’s top scorers.
The president of his own real estate firm (Three Leaf Development), Connaughton has developed properties in Portland, the South Bend, Indiana area, and Milwaukee. Last October, his firm announced plans to demolish an older two-story apartment building in Brewers Hill near the city’s downtown to build nine to 12 rental units. Connaughton’s first Milwaukee project, a four-story, three-unit apartment building is nearly complete, while construction is underway on his second development, a two-story building, with just over 1,900 square feet of street-level retail space and an upper-level apartment.
Connaughton is the founder of the philanthropic With Us Foundation, which creates access to athletics for all kids, instilling life skills, values and wellness habits through sport. In August of 2017, St. John’s Prep christened the basketball court inside the school’s new $25 million Wellness Center as “Connaughton Court.”
A LASTING IMPRESSION
Also occurring during today’s visit to campus, Connaughton held a short Q&A with Boston-area media before spending the afternoon posing for photos outdoors with pre-registered attendees from the Prep community as well as with members of the Danvers-based first responders. Headmaster Hardiman, meanwhile, was confident the student-athletes who spent time with the Prep’s newest world champion “walked away with the lessons and values that Pat shared with them and will put those into action in their own lives.”
“There are things you have to do at the Prep academically that enable you to have success athletically,” said Connaughton during the O’Brien Initiative conversation this morning. “I encourage you all to develop a competitive mindset in everything you do here. Are you going to be as excited about competing in an Algebra II exam as you are about competing in a state playoff game? Probably not. But you have to treat them the same. That’s how you get where you want to go.”
Facts about Pat
Born: Arlington, Mass.
Alumni Status: St. John’s Prep Class of 2011
HT/WT: 6-foot-5, 209 pounds
Age: 28
College: University of Notre Dame
Years: Entering 7th NBA season
NBA Debut: 10/30/15
Drafted: 2015 Brooklyn Nets, 2nd round (11th pick, 41st overall); Also the 121st overall selection in the 2014 Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft by the Baltimore Orioles
2020-21 averages: 6.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 37.1 percent 3-point FG (69 games)