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This article is so full of BS, it's not even funny !!!
Endless summer: Parker's choice
Buck Harvey
Gregg Popovich tells his players how long they will practice, and what they will eat on the charter. He sends them to the bench when he wants, and he can yell at them when they hesitate.
But when it comes to their summers, he's powerless. This drove him crazy with Manu Ginobili.
It will eventually with Tony Parker.
Parker says he will play for France, just as he's done most summers. His cir stance is far different than Ginobili's.
Parker says that. “I'm younger,” he said last week. “When I pass that bar, the 30 years, then I'll think about it and learn from what happened with Manu.”
That doesn't mean Parker can't still get hurt. But Ginobili was limping going in. He would have better served both his body and his employer by staying home.
But with today's ground rules, it was Ginobili's choice. Given that, there was no way Ginobili would turn his back on his Argentine teammates. They were best friends long before they became the first to beat the NBA-led Americans.
Parker, instead, has joked how selfish his national team has been. The French organization has been as dysfunctional, and it hasn't always treated him well.
Two years ago he broke his right index finger in a World Championships tune-up game, and the national team wanted him to play with a splint.
Parker had to argue his way out. “It's not that I don't want to play,” he said then. “I can't play.”
So the Spurs wonder why he wants to continue, and sometimes they suggest he reconsider. Two years ago, during the season when he would become the Finals MVP, he had a sore knee.
Parker said then he thought the two-a-day practices in the summer with the French team could have contributed to his condition. Hearing that, Popovich told him to “think twice” about his national commitment.
But Parker keeps volunteering, and the Spurs wonder if he feels guilty. He's a star here, and his country has struggled. Shouldn't he help out?
Those who know him say it's more complex. France has always had a love-hate with Parker, and the split is attributable to his half-American, half-Euro heritage.
The love is as obvious as his advertisements in the Metro. When the Spurs trained in France in 2006, the Parisian newspapers called the excitement around him “Le Parkermania.”
The hate is less clear. Maybe because of his NBA life, they see someone not like them. With his games played in the middle of the night in Europe, they hear more about his success than they see it.
Parker has tried to mend this. He went to Singapore in 2005 with the French delegation in an attempt to land the 2012 Olympics.
Still, he's seen as a product of America. He's in Los Angeles now, living a Hollywood life. Is the only thing French about him the language?
The best way to change this: lead an underachieving French team to some respectability.
Parker has a lot to work with, and he likes the players. Boris Diaw is one of his best friends. There are also a half-dozen other NBA players, including Joakim Noah.
But they also play too much of an NBA style, albeit without 3-point shooters. This summer, again, they have to qualify for the European championships.
So the French will lean on Parker as the Spurs did this season, and he will continue to risk his fingers and his knees. This likely won't be over until 2012, when Parker hits the “bar” of 30.
Popovich might as well hear this now.
Parker will want to play in the same Olympics that Paris lost to London.
This article is so full of BS, it's not even funny !!!
Hi guys!
No o for me?
this article is awful. honestly, i just can't begin to point all the stupidity and mistakes of this article, it would be too long.
how can a journalist be so wrong so often ? does he care abouth the truth or he just throw some arguments without checking anything ?
He's an insult to journalism. LAME. WRONG. POOR article.
I like how people write about how the article is full of BS when their posts are just the same. Feel free to actually make some examples than us trusting your posts.
Another Harvey hit piece... 'Spurs prefer players not to play overseas, but players still do'... what is it, the 123782th article we read about this?
Good thing for the Spurs that Paris didn't get the Olympics. Host country gets an automatic b-ball berth. As disfunctional and mediocre as the French NT seems to be, that's the only way they'd get in. Europe is just too deep with quality teams. We'll have to put up with Tony playing in qualifying events, but it's over much sooner every summer than Manu's extra-curricular activities.
What's erroneous about it?
dang, san antonio is a tough crowd for newpaper writers...
Tp isn't 30 but he had been playing a lot of pro-games since he was 18.His body had more miles than other players at his age.
He had ankle injuries in the RS.Last 2 years he missed games for that reason.
Really bad news for the Spurs.
firsty, this article is so full of cliches, it's not even funny.
The french staff didn't want to risk TP's health. His injury was minor and most NBA players plays through this kind of injury. Even Manu told him in this compe ion "are you really quiting for this ???". TP was a kid who didn't want to go against the Spurs who were very cautious because they couldn't care less about the french NT, which i could understand.
And for TP, it's not Love-Hate in France. It's more some indifference due to the fact that basketball isn't very popular in France. NBA Games aren't even broadcasted in free channels.
Poll from "L'Equipe" in october 2008
Favorite sport player for French
1. Thierry Henry
2. Franck Ribéry
3. Laure Manaudou
4. Tony Parker
that's what the love-hate from the artice is bull .
the main "problem" brought with tony is that considering what he's doing in NBA, he should get more recognition. Even his manager said that. but it's just because of basketball low audience in France.
Considering his level in NBa and his showbiz thing with Eva, he should be way more famous in France. but that has nothing to do with hate IMO.
Damn Tony Just Bang Eva all summer long instead of playing
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