I have wondered this for a very long time.
He came and took more grief off of Popovich than any human being should ever have to take off of any human being. Sports announcers all over the country talked about Tony being Pop's "whipping boy".
TP came in when he was 19 and not yet as accomplished a player as Tim or Manu when he showed up. (remember Manu was known as a star elsewhere and was a grown man when he got here. When Pop would scream at Manu, Manu would hold up his hand as if to say 'Talk to the hand'. He never cared what Pop said).
He was also not as well hyped and/or known as Timmy when Tim showed up.
Pop immediately made the entire team around Tim, got Robinson to take a back seat offensively to Tim, and generally made sure that everyone knew that Tim was 'the man". Tim was Pop's savior and Pop knew it/knows it.
Given the realities of the personalities and talents of Tim and Manu, Tony's only place on the team was to fit in to the offensive set that Pop wanted, which was generally "geev thee boll to Teemy", and get out of the way. So everyone in the league knew that was the Spurs offensive set. Tim got the ball from the pg, dribbled in to the low post , figured out if a double team was going to show up or not, and then depending on what he saw, he would either score or throw it out to a three point shooter. That is what the spurs did for about the first five years Tony was here. That is what Pop wanted.
Tony had little or no authority to do anything else on the floor than that. So his assist figures were never what some point guards would have been because the predominant ball handler was not the point guard...it was Tim Duncan. The offense ran through Tim, and everyone on the team accepted that. Including Tony Parker.
Pop was a point guard in his own career and so had/has VERY clear ideas about what he wants a point guard to do, and how to utilize the best that Tim has to offer.
In the early years, several times Pop would say to Tony and/or other team members "which of you is an all-star? HUH? Are you an All-Star? Are you?" So the other team members would say "No, Coach, I am not an all-star", and Pop would go on to explain why that meant that they were nothing compared to Tim, and so everyone should make sure that the team was doing what was best (i.e., giving the ball to Tim). The whole point of having three point shooters surrounding Tim was that it would open up the middle for him to operate. The guards were to either give it to Tim or drive to the paint so as to draw the defenders away from the three point shooters on the perimeter.
So, in order to keep from getting screamed at by Pop, Tony became exactly what Pop wanted...a point guard who subjugated his own preferences and talent to that of the star of the team. So his assists were never very impressive and his scoring was never very impressive compared to other point guards in the league who didn't play in the Pop/Tim system.
So, people here and elsewhere became convinced that Tony wasn't as good as most other point guards, because his stats were never as impressive as other point guards.
The fact that Tim has been much less productive in the past few years and has had to admit that he is not as dominant in the post as he was a few years ago has changed the way that the team operates. It has been hard on Tim to learn to shoot the ball when he gets it in his hand rather than hold it and dribble it and survey the field as he did for so many years, but as he has done so, and as other team members have been asked to catch and shoot from someone other than Tim, Tony's stats have looked more impressive and so people think he has gotten better.
I simply think that the man does what the team and his coach need, and always has done it. Lots of people around here don't pay enough attention to see it I think.
Also, Tony is almost the ANTI-TIM when it comes to clothes and high fashion and interest in celebrity style. There is nothing wrong with that, to me, but to a lot of folks around here, it sometimes seems to be a problem because it is not what Tim wants and what Tim wants is how everybody should act. I don't think that TIm thinks, that, but I think some of the fans do.
Tony is better than most folks around here give him credit for by a mile, but that is the way it has always been here, and I think that Pop's treatment of him started the whole approach.
The thing about Erin Barry? Remember that noone knows what any of these guys do. Or with whom they do it. I don't have any illusions about any of these folks, and I think that people who are harboring grudges about that sort of thing against the one guy who was caught are delusional to think that is the only case, or that he is the only non-faithful sports figure on the Spurs team.
Best post I've read in a long time. Well said
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