NBA
Remember the Legacy: Future HOF PG Tony Parker
The 4x NBA Champion & 2007 Finals MVP is calling it a career after 18 years in the League
🇺🇸 It’s with a lot of emotion that I retire from basketball, it was an incredible journey! Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought I would live all those unbelievable moments with the NBA and the French National Team.
Thank you for everything! https://t.co/YKqTlnkG90— Tony Parker (@tonyparker) June 10, 2019
Tony Parker has announced on Twitter that he is retiring from the NBA after a 18-year career. Today, we take a look back and remember the legacy of future Hall of Famer, Tony Parker.
Tony Parker was born in Bruges, Belgium, and raised in France. His father, Tony Parker Sr. was a professional basketball player overseas and star at Loyola University in Chicago, IL. Parker Jr. (technically although he never included the Jr. to his professional NBA name) wanted to play football originally, but changed his mind after witnessing Michael Jordan’s evolution into a star in his father’s native city of Chicago. Parker’s two younger brothers would go on to play college and professional ball as well, making it safe to say the Parker family is a basketball family.
Parker decided to forgo the NCAA offers from UCLA and Georgia Tech to start his professional career right out of high school with Paris Basket Racing in the French League. He entered the 2001 NBA Draft as widely unheralded NBA prospect, but two summer camp workouts with the San Antonio Spurs led to him being drafted 28th overall in the 1st round to the surprise of many national pundits. Four Championships later, it looks like Gregg Popovich made a terrific decision.
Each member of the Big 3 in San Antonio had a signature move. Manu Ginobili’s euro-step earned league wide affection with its nonstop imitations and Tim Duncan’s post moves off the backboard earned him the nickname “The Big Fundamental.” Tony Parker’s spin moves don’t get near the same amount of recognition, but they were just as effective. True basketball fans of the era and especially Spurs fans will always remember Parker’s ability to drive through the lane, brush off the closest defender with a spin move and pop up a floater just outside the help defender’s reach or a quick layup for an easy two points.
PG Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets
Other PGs were considered for this exercise of ‘the Next Tony Parker’. Kyle Lowry comes to mind as an underrated player for numerous deep playoff runs. Eric Bledsoe seems to be at the beginning of that with the Bucks’ bright future and has a similar game dominated from the interior and mid-range. Even Parker’s teammate this past year, Kemba Walker could be a candidate as a high-quality PG who never had elite athleticism, but became so skilled/crafty, he couldn’t be overlooked.
However, all of those traits are more or less a part of Jamal Murray’s yet-to-be cemented legacy. Murray’s Nuggets look poised to make continuous deep playoff runs after being one game away from a WCF appearance despite no previous playoff experience and he is paired with a dominant big man in Nikola Jokic just like Parker was with Tim Duncan. Murray is only 22 years old after being a notorious one-and-done player at Kentucky and came into the league with much more recognition than Parker did. His ability to shoot the 3 is already above Parker’s peak shooting days and Murray certainly has the potential to become a better overall player, offensively and defensively. However, it will be a long time before Murray can no longer aspire to accomplish what Parker did in this league as a 4x Champion, Finals MVP, and 4x All-NBA.
