Pat Connaughton works out for Pacers
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Notre Dame’s Pat Connaughton is dealing with a decision most would be dying for.
Play pro basketball or pro baseball? The Irish star spent a little time at Bankers Life Fieldhouse Tuesday trying to impress the Pacers front office. It’s his second workout of about 12 for NBA teams across the country.
Connaughton is trying to assure teams he’s all in when it comes to basketball. He was a solid two sport star at Notre Dame, who was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the fourth round of the 2014 draft.
After the workout he addressed questions of whether his future lies in basketball or baseball.
“For me, I’m all basketball until I don’t make an NBA roster,” said Connaughton. “I don’t think I’ll go overseas to pursue it when I could play baseball here, but until I don’t make an NBA roster that’s where I stand. It’s a matter of getting the NBA executives to believe me, shall we say. I love them both don’t get me wrong. I’ve been playing them both since I was a kid, but I look at it from the perspective with my life. I would be kicking myself if I just went straight to baseball because it was the ‘easier path.’”
The 6’5″ swingman impressed a lot of people during the NCAA tournament. Now he’s trying to impress NBA coaches and staff. Today, it was the Pacers’ front office. The Irish swingman is far from a lock in this year’s NBA draft, but his stock has really risen after a strong performance at the NBA Draft Combine earlier this month.
“”At Notre Dame we were able to, you know, be very efficient because we had guys do what they did best, and we had enough pieces where no one had to, you know, go outside of their comfort zone so to speak. So to come into these workouts and show that, you know, I can use the pick-and-roll, I can do some things that translate more to the NBA game besides, you know, shoot the corner three is something that I think I’ve been able to do over the past few weeks, and I look to continue to do over the next few weeks,” said Connaughton.