Yesterday, the last piece of the original Spurs Big 3 announced his retirement.
After 18 years of NBA basketball Tony Parker has decided that it’s enough.
Unfortunately he didn’t retire in Spurs uniform which was what pretty much everyone
expected.
There is still a chance Spurs sign him to a 1-day contract and he gets to retire a Spur,
but instead of focusing on what could happen, let’s look back at the player himself.
Hey guys.
PRPLPRNCH here and today I want to look back at Tony Parker’s career and figure out just
how good he was.
Unlike most players, Tony Parker’s path to the NBA didn’t go through college.
In 1999 Tony Parker signed with the Paris Basket Racing to turn professional.
After one season there, he was offered to attend the Nike Hoop Summit in Indianapolis.
There he proved himself enough to get offers from several colleges, but instead he chose
to continue playing in France.
After one more year in Paris Basket Racing Tony Parker entered the 2001 NBA Draft,and
was selected with the 28th pick by the San Antonio Spurs.
In the very beginning, Parker played as a point guard backup for Antonio Daniels, but
soon after he took over starting point guard role and ended up starting 72 out of 77 games
played.
In his rookie season Parker averaged 9.2 points and 4.3 assists.
He led the Spurs in steals and assists. and made the NBA’s All-Rookie First team .
Next year the Spurs had a great season compiling 60 wins over 82 games - the best record in
the league.
Tony Parker himself improved quite a bit, averaging 15.5 points and 5.3 assists.
He struggled a bit in the playoffs, but overall helped the San Antonio Spurs to win the NBA
Championship in 2003.
Parker’s tenure with the Spurs almost ended after winning the first championship.
Spurs tried to acquire Jason Kidd from the New Jersey Nets, but the trade failed and
Parker remained the Spurs starting point guard.
That paid off as 2 years later Spurs won another championship.
Parker was great in the first three rounds of the playoffs, but once again struggled
in the NBA Finals.
Nevertheless, San Antonio did manage to beat the Pistons 4-3 in the NBA Finals.
After underwhelming NBA Finals Parker had a strong season in 2005-2006.
He averaged a career high 18.9 points per game and 5.8 assists.
He also made his first All-Star team in 2006 and helped San Antonio to compile another
great regular season with 63 wins.
In the playoffs however, San Antonio was eliminated in the second round by the Dallas Mavericks
such denying San Antonio’s second attempt for a repeat.
Next year Parker continued to be consistent and was named to the NBA All-Star team for
the second time.
Spurs had a great season and Parker made the NBA Finals for the third time in his career.
This time they were facing off against the Cavaliers who pretty much just had Lebron
James.
Spurs swept the Cavaliers and unlike the 2 previous times, in 2007 Finals Parker was
great averaging a team high 24.5 points and shooting 56.8% from the field and 57.1% from
the three.
He was subsequently named the 2007 Finals MVP making him the first European born player
to earn such an award.
For the next 5 seasons Parker would have good seasons with the Spurs and every season they
would make the playoffs but not get back to the NBA Finals.
That luck changed in 2013 when they made the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat.
Spurs should have won those finals, but thanks to Ray Allen and in game 7 to Lebron James
Spurs lost the series in seven games.
The Spurs were back in the NBA Finals in 2014 and this time they beat the Miami Heat by
a record margin.
4-1 in the series and Parker was a 4x champion now.
After the 4th championship Parker signed an extension to stay with the Spurs for 3 more
seasons.
It was clear though that Parker was older now.
While the Spurs still were having great regular seasons and made the playoffs every year,
Parker wasn’t as productive as before.
In 2015 playoffs the Spurs lost to the Clippers in the first round and Parker struggled averaging
only 10.9 points on 36% shooting.
Next year Spurs won a franchise-best 67 games, but were eliminated in the playoffs by the
Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round.
After the season, the inevitable happened.
Spurs lost arguably their biggest part of the original BIG 3.
Tim Duncan retired and now, there was only Parker and Ginobili.
When you lose a player like Duncan usually the team goes down, but not the Spurs, Kawhi
Leonard emerged as the third star on the Spurs so they still had great regular seasons, but
in the playoffs they missed that leadership.
Additionally Parker suffered a rupture of his left quadriceps tendon and was required
to have a surgery ending his streak of 221 straight playoff games for the Spurs.
Parker came back at the beginning of the 2017-2018 season, but his time as the starting point
guard for the Spurs was over.
He started only 21 of 55 games he played that season and for the year he averaged a career
low 7.7 points and 3.5 assists.
In July of 2018, to the surprise of many Parker signed a 2-year deal with the Charlotte Hornets
ending his historious tenure with the Spurs.
This year he was a reserve point guard behind Kemba Walker and averaged 9.5 points and 3.7
assists.
Even though Parker had one more year on his contract, he decided to retire.
Tony Parker ends his NBA career with 1254 games played, 1198 of those as a San Antonio
Spur.
For his career he averaged 30.5 minutes per game, 15.5 points and 5.6 assists.
Tony Parker is a 6x NBA All-Star, a 4x NBA champion and 1x Finals MVP.
Besides NBA, Tony Parker represented his national team France in a bunch of tournaments.
He won a gold medal with France in 2013 Eurobasket and was the MVP of the tournament.
He’s also a 2x FIBA Europe Player of the year winning the awards in 2013 and 2014.
Let’s also not forget that he was the one player who put all the following players from
France on the map because he was so good.
With all the accomplishments after a 20 year career as a pro, all there is left to say
is THANK YOU TONY!
For all the memories, highlights and professionalism you’ve provided.
You will be remembered as one of the best point guards and certainly the top foreign
point guard in the NBA.
Thank you for watching guys.
Do you think Tony Parker is a surefire Hall of Famer?
Where would you rank him amongst the top point guards in NBA History.
Would you have liked to see him retire with the Spurs?
Please leave a comment below with your thoughts and don’t forget to drop a like for Tony.
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Thanks for everything!
This was PRPLPRNCH, and I’m out!