Thursday, February 28th, 2013 at 2:30 pm  |  62 responses

Tony Parker Content to Fly and Dominate Under the Radar


by Marcel Mutoni / @ marcel_mutoni

Despite averages of 21.1 points (on 53.4% shooting from the field), 7.6 assists, while leading the NBA’s best and most under-appreciated team, Tony Parker continues to be overlooked. And though Gregg Popovich is still beating the drum for his floor general, he’s fighting a losing battle.

That’s fine by Tony Parker, long as the wins keep piling up.

Per Yahoo! Sports:

Tony Parker spent time in the summer playing basketball in his father’s native Chicago during his youth, but was mostly raised in France. When it came time to decide the next step of his burgeoning basketball career, the San Antonio Spurs’ guard was “very close” to going to UCLA or Georgia Tech before opting to begin his pro career in France. That decision, according to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, is the primary reason why Parker has seemingly flown under the radar for so long.

Parker is aware of the lack of attention, but he is more concerned about wins.”It’s better late than never,” Parker said. “That’s not what drives me. What drives me is winning championships. I always knew my time would come because Pop always challenged me.” [...] “LeBron is the best player in the NBA, by far. But if you want to give it to someone to change it, why not [me]?” Parker said with a laugh. “Charles Barkley had it one year [1992-93] even though M.J. [Michael Jordan] was the best player. Steve Nash got it [twice from 2004-06] even though Kobe [Bryant] was the best player in the NBA. But for me the most important thing is we win. If it [the MVP] happens, it happens. If not, LeBron is unbelievable. But for me, I don’t think about it. It’s not in my hands.”

Tony Parker is certainly part of MVP debate, but the award this season (and perhaps for the foreseeable future) clearly belongs to LeBron James.

The San Antonio Spurs’ point guard will have to settle for steering his squad towards yet another unexpected title run.

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  • i_ball

    So not going to the finals is failure? I really don’t get that. The only season they were below par in the playoffs was that Memphis series – they really looked old then.
    To get to the Finals in the West you have to fight throug 5-6 really good teams and it’s been like that for 10 years maybe.

  • i_ball

    I think if DRose hadn’t gone down LeBron would still be chasing that ring. Small ball would have worked against the Bulls

  • Marcuz

    Imo the MVP award became null and void the year Tim Duncan won it over JKidd…..

  • eZ

    A popular thing these days to call players “underrated” and “under the radar”.
    Parker, he’s an
    allstar, a feature on his national team and in the mvp discussion but
    somehow everybody keeps calling him ‘under the radar’.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    judging by what happened the year before, there is no reason to believe that.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    Except, Tony Parker isn’t having a better season than Chris Paul.

    .

    http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&p1=parketo01&y1=2013&p2=paulch01&y2=2013

    .

    See, there is this whole defensive issue. Where Chris Paul is exponentially better than Parker. There is the whole, Chris Paul turns the ball over LESS than he takes it away. While Parker turns the ball over more than he takes it away at a rate of 2.7 to 1.

    .

    Let’s also note that Chris Paul is more productive, in less minutes, using less possessions.

    .
    You want to argue Tony Parker is the MVP over Paul? Sure.
    .
    You want to argue Tony Parker has been better than Paul? Hell No. That is wrong. Blatantly wrong.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    the CP actually has better player’s around him thing is strictly an opinion. He has more catchy names around him. But it’d be really hard to convince me Tony Parker could do for the Clippers what Chris Paul is doing. While I would be willing to bet Chris Paul would not make the Spurs any worse. At the very very least.

  • RayJr

    I’m just going by what I’m seeing and at the end of games Pop usually favors Green over Kawhi. Kawhi is also tentative and seems to fade away unless he scores. He doesn’t create on his own like Green does.

  • RayJr

    So what your saying is Green is better on offense and defense.

  • RayJr

    That game was the deciding factor for me of who is the better PG. Also Paul George did not outplay Lebron that game.

  • AndyK415

    Yeah I was thinking along the lines of Jefferson (although being a terrible defender, but having a great offensive game) would be a better than average big body to help the Spurs get over the hump.

  • i_ball

    CP is the better player no doubt I don’t want to argue about it. I will take Parker over him in the MVP race for one reason – the Spurs have had a lot of injuries and are still on the top of the West. He has stepped up and deserves to be rewarded.

    And CP plays 30 seconds less, come on man. They are having the same season basically 33 minutes 9 wins added to the team by doing different things.

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