Tony Parker is the king of the press conference.
After recent success at the free throw line, Parker, a 53.5 percent free throw shooter, likened himself to a hybrid mutation of NBA sharpshooting guards Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and added LeBron James to the mix as well for good measure.
Last season, he took a seat behind the microphone and ridiculed coach Steve Alford’s fashion sense, crowning himself as Alford’s best-dressed player ever.
When the legendary former Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson, Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers and several other NBA players were in attendance at UCLA’s game against Arizona last season, Parker said he wasn’t starstruck.
“Now, if Halle Berry was in the stands I might look over,” Parker said.
The jokes don’t stop once the cameras turn off. When Parker first arrived at UCLA and was asked by UCLA Athletics to fill out a questionnaire about his background, he penciled in “Big Sexy” as his preferred nickname.
Parker’s humor and affability have made him a consistently entertaining personality on the UCLA men’s basketball team. But his walk hasn’t always matched his talk.
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April 11, 2012 was a momentous day for UCLA basketball.
Shabazz Muhammad, the No. 2 high school player in the country, stood in front of cameras on ESPN and announced he would be attending UCLA. Two weeks later, there was significantly less national hoopla as Parker decided to follow Muhammad’s lead. On campus, however, people were buzzing.
With Parker’s commitment, UCLA secured the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation and one of the most highly touted classes in recent Bruin history. Joining No. 2-ranked Muhammad was another top-five player in guard Kyle Anderson, four-star guard Jordan Adams and Parker, widely considered one of the nation’s top-20 players.
Coming off a down year in which the team went just 19-14 and missed out on the NCAA tournament, expectations were astronomical for UCLA and its elite group of freshmen.
They largely lived up to the hype. Muhammad averaged 17.9 points and 5.2 rebounds as a freshman, Adams surpassed expectations by averaging more than 15 points per game and Anderson averaged nearly 10 points and 9 rebounds.
Parker played just 6.3 minutes per game.
While his teammates and friends found success immediately, Parker’s early lack of production turned his fun-loving nature sour at times.
“It was rough. I remember some nights I would cry because coming from being a McDonald’s All-American, four-straight state championships, it’s different,” Parker said. “So I mean, I just had to do a reality check and I worked as hard as I possibly could.”
But even with the extra work he put in, results on the court were slow to improve. Parker completely reshaped his body over the offseason following his freshman year, shedding 25 pounds, but he still managed to muster just 6.9 points per game as a sophomore.
Meanwhile, he watched as Muhammad bolted for the NBA and was drafted in the 2013 lottery and as Anderson and Adams developed into a college basketball superstars and were both taken in the first round of the 2014 NBA draft.
Three of the four members of the 2012 recruit class had accomplished all they could in college and had moved on to the biggest stage the sport had to offer. Parker was the last one left, still trying to prove himself.
“It’s kind of a lot of pressure because I have to end it on a good note,” Parker said. “So it is a lot of pressure because those guys did great.”
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Tony Parker has gotten used to winning.
At Miller Grove High School in Atlanta, Parker led his team to four consecutive Georgia 4A state titles. He’s won two gold medals with USA Basketball at the 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship and the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championships.
With UCLA, he won the Pac-12 regular season title in 2013 and the Pac-12 tournament in 2014.
“Tony’s a winner,” Alford said before last season. “(He has) a winning demeanor.”
That’s why this year has been so difficult.
For the first time in his life, Parker isn’t winning.
With three regular season games remaining, UCLA is 16-12 on the year and seems to be on the outside of the NCAA tournament field looking in.
The barometer for the Bruins’ success seems to be Parker. When he’s good, so is UCLA. After a rigorous offseason in which Parker trained with several NBA players including Josh Smith, Louis Williams, Jarrett Jack and Jerry Stackhouse, Parker finally started to show the promise this season that earned him a top-20 ranking coming out of high school.
Despite struggling in UCLA’s recent road trip when he fouled out against both Arizona State and Arizona, Parker is averaging 10 points and 6.8 rebounds this season while providing a hugely important physical presence in the paint that goes unnoticed in the box score.
“I think it’s all mentality for him,” said senior guard Norman Powell. “He’s being more aggressive and he’s getting the looks that he needs.”
However Parker’s most important contribution has nothing to do with basketball. And it all comes back to the personality he’s shown in the press conferences.
Parker is the ultimate team chemist. He’s the glue that holds the team together emotionally, the fuel the players need when their energy is running low, the jokester who knows how to relieve tension.
“He’s a very talkative guy, very emotional, he kind of lifts us up in that area,” said sophomore guard Bryce Alford. “That’s partially his role on and off the court, giving us that fire. He jokes around, he gets us in a good mood, gets us loose.”
“He makes the locker room an open environment. It makes the team a lot of fun,” said freshman forward Kevon Looney . “On days coming to practice when the season gets long, he makes coming to practice fun. He makes the game fun and he brings a lot of energy to the team, the bench, everybody.”
Humor is Parker’s self-prescribed medicine.
When he was 5 years old, Parker’s older brother, Adrian Parker, was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison for armed robbery. Adrian watched Tony play live for the first time in last season’s Sweet 16 game against Florida.
“That’s probably why I’m always smiling because when you go see someone in prison that’s your brother, that you’re that close to, you have to have a good outlook on life,” Parker said.
It wasn’t until high school that Parker learned to channel that humor through basketball.
In the midst of a bad game his freshman season, Parker was pulled aside by his teammate Stephen Hill, now a wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers. Of all things, it was a girl in the stands that changed Parker’s perception of the sport.
“I’m like, ‘Yo I’m playing so terrible, I’m stressed,’” Parker said. “(Hill) said, ‘Yo look. Look at the girl in the third row.’ I’m like, ‘Dude,’ he’s like, ‘Dog, it’s basketball, bro. We got 15 more minutes, you gon’ play another time.’”
The lesson Parker learned that day, one he’s trying to help UCLA understand this year with his humor, is not to let the pressures of basketball overwhelm.
From the hype and expectations surrounding him as a freshman to the stress of matching the production of his former teammates now in the NBA to the burden of UCLA’s up-and-down season, Parker has dealt with his fare share of pressures.
But through it all, he’s still smiling.