Tony Parker Player Profile.
June 20th 2007 01:29
The Big 3 for the Spurs celebrate the fruits of their labor. (Image from nba.com)
The NBA Finals came and went at a blink of an eye and what did we learn? San Antonio continues its low key run of excellence, Cleveland and the LeBrons aren’t ready for the big time just yet, while Tony Parker was the MVP. Speaking of Mr. Eva Longoria, what else do we know? He’s French, and, um, he is going to marry one of the most luscious women in the world.
Fear no more NBALOUD readers because we are going to give you a lowdown on Mr. Parker. We’ll begin with the formalities:
Date of Birth: 17 May, 1982.
Height: 6’2” (188cm)
Draft: 2001 (28th overall)
Points Per Game: 15.6
Assists Per Game: 5.4
Rebounds Per Game: 3.1
Steals Per Game: 1
2 Time NBA All-Star
2007 NBA Finals MVP
There are certain people in this world that no matter what they do their number always gets called up in the game known as ‘life bingo’ – Tony Parker is one of those individuals. Born in Belgium and French raised, TP was the progeny of an American father, who was a handy basketball player in his own right and Dutch model, mother. You could just envision his life being full of peaches and cream growing up.
Young Tony, like most European kids, was obsessed with soccer but began to love basketball in earnest watching Michael Jordan do his thing and dominate the NBA for over a decade. Parker would often sneak out of bed in the middle of the night to watch the Bulls title runs and the mould was set, he was hooked on the wonderful game of hoops.
A further turning point was when in 1996, Parker, and his family visited Chicago and got to
Everybody should ask Tony to buy them a lottery ticket. (Image from nba.com)
Prior to his life in the NBA Parker started off playing for France in the 2001 European Championship and Paris Basketball Racing in 2000. Tony became a blip on American basketball radar screens during the 2000 Nike Hoop Summit where he put on a star performance with 20 points, seven assists, four rebounds and 2 steals in 30 minutes of basketball, whilst competing against some of the top young talents in the US.
Nominating for the NBA in 2001 Tony worked out with the Spurs who initially rejected the slight Frenchman. Gregg Popovich had the European bias that was still very much prevalent at that stage, and didn’t like the fact that the young point guard wasn’t down with physical contact.
Although, the competitive spirit and blinding speed made the Spurs gamble on Tony and he was on his way to NBA stardom. Coach Gregg Popovich was initially extremely hard on his young charge, often calling him out and deriding his performances. For any fan that is familiar with NBA basketball Popovich is a famously hard task master and perfectionist.
Even after winning a Championship, the Spurs were ready to make a trade for Jason Kidd in 2003. The trade fell through, and this proved to be the impetus for Tony Parker to improve after the personal slight of trying to get him replaced as the starting floor general.
He hasn’t looked back since.
During his rookie season Parker led San Antonio in steals and assists, whilst making it to the 2001 NBA All-Rookie First Team.
Oh, and continuing the charmed life theme that seems to permeate through Parker’s existence he also scored a Championship in his first year of play. He would go on to win another two more, as alluded to earlier, including the one from this season, while notching up a Finals MVP becoming the first foreign player to do so. Lucky bastard!
Perhaps his biggest achievement was winning the hand of Eva Longoria. Can we say this one more time? Lucky bastard!
The video for today is one of Tony Parker showing off his skills in the Finals. Check it out, yo!
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