Parker bounces back

After losing a heart-breaking seven-game series to Miami in the NBA Finals last June, San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker was determined not to be disappointed in playing for France at the recent FIBA EuroBasket Championships in Slovenia.

Parker, 31, has won three titles with the Spurs and badly wanted another one with Tim Duncan coming close to retirement. But LeBron James wouldn’t cooperate. So Parker did the next best thing, he focused on the FIBA EuroBasket qualifier for the FIBA World Championships in Spain next year.

In 2000, Parker was on the French squad that topped the FIBA Under-18 World Championships. He promised to someday lead the team to the senior title and it took a wait of 13 years before making good on his word. For France, it was the first European title in 36 years of playing behind powers like the former Soviet Union, Serbia, the former Yugoslavia, Italy, Lithuania and Greece in the biennial tournament. France was third in 2005 and second in 2011.

This year, French coach Vincent Collet assembled a team bannered by Parker and NBA veterans Nicolas Batum, Nando de Colo, Boris Diaw, Johan Petro, and Mickael Gelabale. The lineup would’ve been more formidable if only Joakim Noah, Michael Pietrus, Kevin Seraphin, Ronny Turiaf, Rodrigue Beaubois and Evan Fournier played but Collet had more than enough pros to get the job done. Besides, Parker was the key to victory, topping the tournament in scoring with a 19.0 clip and scoring 32 points in the 75-72 overtime win over Spain in the semifinals.

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France finished with an 8-3 record, losing to a Dirk Nowitzki-less Germany, 80-74, in its opener and to Lithuania 76-72 and Serbia 77-65 before going unbeaten the rest of the way. In the knockout quarterfinals, France bowled over host Slovenia, 72-62, then dumped Spain before crushing Lithuania, 80-66, for the gold medal. Now that France is safely in the FIBA World Championships, maybe Collet will fortify his roster by bringing Noah, Pietrus and Seraphin to Spain. In Slovenia, it helped that Parker played alongside Spurs teammates Diaw and De Colo. What the Spurs failed to do in the NBA, Parker and his French teammates did in Slovenia.

Spain took third place in Slovenia without Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro. The team, however, had Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Jose Calderon and Ricky Rubio. Spain didn’t need to play in Slovenia because as the host of next year’s FIBA World Championships, it has an automatic slot in the 24-team tournament. So in qualifying the top six finishers in Slovenia, Spain was excluded and seventh placer Serbia booked the last ticket. The final standings were, in order, France, Lithuania, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Serbia.

In the NBA last season, Parker averaged 20.3 points and 7.6 assists and shot a career-high .845 from the line, a tribute to Spurs assistant coach and shooting doctor Chip Engelland. There’s no question he’s one of the world’s best point guards even if he doesn’t get the recognition.

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“In the last nine years, Parker has played at an All-Star level,” wrote Jan Hubbard. “His scoring average, with scorers Duncan and Manu Ginobili in the lineup, had been in round figures, 17, 19, 19, 19, 22, 16, 18, 18 and 20. During that period, his shooting from the field has been as high as 55 percent but never lower than 48. And he’s improved. In his fourth season, he shot 65 percent from the free throw line. Last year, she shot a career-best .845 He’s been at an elite level for quite a while but there is little doubt he has not received the recognition that he should have received.”

  Former NBA guard and TV analyst Derek Harper said, “I think Parker is a lot better than he gets credit for … he goes about his business every single night, you look up and he has the numbers and he’s gotten the job done, I think it benefits him that he’s been in the same system for a long time, he’s played in the same offense and they’ve finally taken the handcuffs off him and I think he plays with a freedom that a lot of guys don’t get the opportunity to play with.” Coach Gregg Popovich has built a winning tradition with Duncan in the middle but those championships couldn’t have come without Parker.

If the Philippines is bracketed with France in the preliminaries at the FIBA World Championships in Spain, the backcourt matchup will be interesting. Coach Chot Reyes could pit Asia’s No. 1 point guard Jayson Castro against Parker or Jimmy Alapag or Gabe Norwood. Just to be able to go head-to-head against Parker would be an experience of a lifetime for any Gilas player.