Tony Parker Tried Hiding Triceps Injury From the San Antonio Spurs

Chris Paul’s elbow to Tony Parker’s right arm on Thursday night rendered him ineffective on the basketball court, but he wasn’t going to tell anyone. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich eventually figured it out, and sat his point guard last night as San Antonio beat the Phoenix Suns 97-87 (though Parker expects to play on Wednesday). Per the Express-News: “If Tony Parker had told Spurs coach Gregg Popovich about the excruciating pain in his right arm, he wouldn’t have played in Friday’s 107-101 overtime loss to the Warriors. An inadvertent elbow from guard Chris Paul hit the Spurs point guard just above the right elbow in Thursday’s game against the Clippers, but Parker stayed mum about how sore he was even after warming up and discovering his perimeter shot was affected by the pain. ‘He was a little too much in hero mode,’ Popovich said. ‘He really wasn’t forthcoming. We didn’t realize it until about halfway through the game when he didn’t shoot any (perimeter) shots. I would have sat him in that game, and that’s definitely why we’re sitting him tonight.’ Parker admitted withholding information about the extent of his injury. ‘I told Pop, ‘You know me. I’ve been here 10 years, and I don’t complain about injuries. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t tell you.’ He said, ‘With something like this, you’ve got to tell ?me.’?'”