Longtime Spurs guard Parker retiring at age 37
SAN ANTONIO — Former Spurs guard Tony Parker, a four-time NBA champion, instructed ESPN’s The Undefeated that he’s retiring after 18 seasons.
“I will retire. … I made a decision that I am not going to play basketball anymore,” Parker instructed The Undefeated.
Parker, 37, retires with 1,254 regular-season video games performed, having averaged 15.5 factors, 5.6 assists and a couple of.7 rebounds per sport.
The Spurs chosen Parker with the 28th general choose within the 2001 NBA draft. He fashioned a core with Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili that gained 4 titles. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Parker was the primary European to develop into an NBA Finals MVP (in 2007).
The six-time All-Star performed for the Spurs from 2001 to 2018 and performed his closing season with the Charlotte Hornets in 2018-19.
Parker instructed The Undefeated in an interview on June 1 in San Antonio that he’s at peace together with his determination to retire. He needed his retirement announcement to be launched Monday.
“Plenty of totally different stuff in the end led me to this determination,” Parker mentioned. “However on the finish of the day, I used to be like, if I can not be a Tony Parker anymore and I can not play for a championship, I do not wish to play basketball anymore.”
Parker additionally tweeted about his retirement Monday.
🇺🇸 It is with plenty of emotion that I retire from basketball, it was an unbelievable journey! Even in my wildest desires, I by no means thought I might stay all these unbelievable moments with the NBA and the French Nationwide Group.
Thanks for every little thing! https://t.co/YKqTlnkG90
— Tony Parker (@tonyparker) June 10, 2019
Parker shall be greatest identified for being a member of the Spurs’ Massive Three, with Duncan and Ginobili, whereas being coached by Gregg Popovich.
They performed collectively from 2002 to 2016 and gained titles in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. One of the vital profitable trios in NBA historical past, they performed over 1,000 video games collectively. Duncan retired in 2016, Ginobili retired in 2018, and each have since had their jerseys retired by the Spurs. The group is predicted to retire Parker’s No. 9 jersey as nicely.
“Tony Parker clearly has had an incredible profession. I’ve had a blessing to be with him since he was 19 years previous,” Popovich mentioned.
Parker instructed Duncan and Ginobili he was retiring throughout a current lunch in San Antonio.
“They had been like, ‘Are you certain?'” Parker mentioned. “And I used to be like, ‘Yeah, I am certain.’ And so, they’re like, ‘Should you’re certain, man, I am so completely satisfied for you. I am so completely satisfied for you. We had an incredible run and might’t wait to beat you up on tennis and spending extra time collectively.’
“… We’re at all times going to be remembered collectively. But it surely was nice to share that second with them. It is loopy. We got here from three totally different backgrounds and got here collectively.”
Tony Parker was a key member of a Spurs group that gained 4 championships. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Photos
Parker is already busy in retirement.
He’s opening the Tony Parker Adequat Academy worldwide college in his hometown of Lyon, France, in September. He’s at the moment the proprietor and president of ASVEL, a French males’s and girls’s skilled basketball membership based mostly in Lyon. Whereas Parker intends to spend extra time working carefully with ASVEL and his new college, he plans to proceed to have a house base in San Antonio.
Parker additionally desires to be an NBA proprietor in the future.
“That’s one in every of my desires,” Parker mentioned. “Proper now, I am specializing in ASVEL and having an incredible expertise. We’re constructing a brand new area proper now, and we’re gonna enter the EuroLeague and the EuroLeague is rising very quick. However the final is to be in the future an proprietor within the NBA. And so I am already having talks with totally different individuals, and so they’re what I am doing in France.
“It takes plenty of work, however I adore it. I adore it. So perhaps in the future, if it is the best alternative and it is one thing that I positively wish to do. I am simply gonna await the best alternative.”
Parker had mentioned in recent times that he needed to play 20 seasons within the NBA. By retiring, he winds up two seasons shy of that aim. Parker turned down a participant’s choice for subsequent season with the Hornets that may have paid $5.25 million.
Do not anticipate the busy Parker to alter his thoughts and return to the NBA, even when he may return to the Spurs.
“I am at peace with it,” Parker mentioned. “It has been a very long time that I have been in peace with that call as a result of I’ve ready myself for that too, with all of the stuff that I am doing, the 2 groups I personal in France and my worldwide college opening in September. I’ve a lot stuff occurring that I’ve at all times been at peace with that call.
“When it comes, I will be prepared to go away it to the younger guys. The sport of basketball is for younger guys. In order that’s why for me, I understood very early, that when it is time to [retire], I will be wonderful with it.”