This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Local and national basketball legends tipped off the start of March Madness Thursday with a pop-a-shot competition at Dockside Brewery in Milford.
Fans had the chance to play against former UConn stars, including Scott Burrell and Chris Smith. The event also celebrated local ad agency Haddad and Partners’ Sweet 16th Anniversary.
Burrell was named high school player of the year while at Hamden High School for both basketball and baseball and was the first American athlete to be drafted in the first round by two major sports leagues. In 1989, he made history by throwing the court-length pass that led to "the shot" by Tate George, which ultimately brought the Huskies to their first Elite Eight appearance. Later in his career, he was a part of the Bull’s sixth NBA championship team, a journey chronicled in the ESPN documentary by Michael Jordan, "The Last Dance."
Smith is a Bridgeport native who remains the Huskies’ all-time leading men’s basketball scorer with 2,145 points, averaging 16.9 points per game for his career. He later played on the U.S. national team that won a silver medal at the 1990 Goodwill Games and bronze at the FIBA World Championships the same year. He played for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1990s. He was recently named to the UConn Basketball All-Century Team.