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I didn't know we won the le in 2002
French youngster rises to the challenge in San Antonio.
By Michael Cunningham
Staff Writer
Posted June 11 2005
San Antonio · He was just 19, fresh out of the European League with France, and now Tony Parker was being asked to run the point for a demanding coach and a veteran team trying to win a championship.
It was November 2001 and Parker suddenly was the starting point guard for the San Antonio Spurs and that meant he had to do so much. Please San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, live in a foreign country, fit in on a team with MVP Tim Duncan, and do what the fans who packed the Alamodome each night expected.
It was, Parker admits now, trying.
"The challenge was great, but it comes with a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations," Parker said Friday. "You can't have bad games here. You have to perform every night and be consistent. When you are young with all that pressure, sometimes you get some up and downs.
"But I think I am getting better and learning and getting more and more comfortable with `Pop' and what he wants. It is going good so far."
Yes, it is. Born in France, raised in Belgium and famously dating television star Eva Longoria, Parker looks to be living the good life. And at age 23 he's already one of the league's top talents and a proven playoff veteran.
The Spurs made it to the Western Conference finals in 2001, and Parker gave a glimpse of what was to come when he averaged 17.2 points, almost double his season average, to help San Antonio past Seattle in the semifinals. When the Spurs won the championship in 2002, Parker scored 20 or more points seven times in the playoffs; the Spurs were 6-1 in those games.
Parker and the Spurs are back in the Finals, and Parker no longer is the talented teenager with so many questions around him. Now he's entrenched as the point guard, and his Finals matchup with Detroit veteran Chauncey Billups not considered to be lopsided.
"We have way more confidence [in Parker] now," Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. "Remember that he was [20] when we won the first championship. Even though he was still a great player, leading us in many games, he went through a lot of things. This is his fourth year, so he's way more mature."
But he's not perfect, and so Parker, whose seems so loose and relaxed, often finds himself target of criticism from Popovich, who doesn't seem that way at all. Popovich said he's learned to give more freedom to Parker and Ginobili, another player who likes to play with few restraints, but that doesn't mean Parker is freed of his many responsibilities.
What does Popovich want?
"Everything," Parker said. "Make everybody [teammates] happy, play defense, pressure, rebound and score."
Those are the things that Popovich asks of Parker, repeatedly and not always nicely. Spurs forward Robert Horry said not a lot of young players can't take that kind of criticism because once they make the NBA they think they can continue to do it their way.
That doesn't work with Popovich, and so Horry cited Parker's "ability to tolerate `Pop''' as the way Parker has matured most.
"I don't say that in a bad way -- everybody has to tolerate Pop because Pop can get on you," Horry said. "As a young player sometimes that can be frustrating. ... Pop just wants the best out of you. He's going to be on you hard, I mean really hard, so if you have the mental toughness to take that, you're going to develop well as a player.
"And I think Tony has a mental toughness."
That isn't reflected in Parker's seemingly carefree demeanor, which would seem to clash with Popovich's demanding style. But Parker says it took a hard man like Popovich to help him reach his basketball potential.
"`Pop' helped me a lot to be stronger mentally and be tough and have that sense of being a stud and coming every night to play," Parker said. "When you are young you can have a very good game and then the next game you are like taking [it] easy. It can't happen in the league; you are playing great point guards every night and you have to show up every night.
"Especially when you play for a team like San Antonio, they want to win and they want to go far every year in the playoffs. You have to be ready."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/s...a-sports-front
I didn't know we won the le in 2002
Tony is beginning to truly believe in himself and that in itself is have been the most important part of his development as a player, a student of the game and as a human being.
"Born in France, raised in Belgium" ??
Up to now, Tony was born to in Belgium to a Dutch Mama and American Papa (making Tony a US citizen), raised/schooled in France, went to French National Sports Ins ute.
They got his age wrong when they won the championship in '03 - he was 21, not 20. But otherwise, good article - lol.
Man, some copy editors might need to be smacked upside their heads.
He turned 21 shortly after the Lakers series.
Nice attempt at an article.
Well, it is from Florida.
Nice article. I like how Pop has allowed both Parker and Manu to play their game while at the same time fit in with the Spurs system.
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