Los Angeles Lakers: Smush Parker says he ‘destroyed’ Tony Parker
Former Los Angeles Lakers point guard, Smush Parker, said he destroyed San Antonio Spurs longtime point guard Tony Parker.
In the mid-2000’s, the Los Angeles Lakers rosters would surprise a lot of people. Outside of Kobe Bryant, a majority of the roster is unrecognizable to casual Lakers fans. One of those players was point guard, Smush Parker.
People have probably heard of Parker, but not for any good reasons. Parker became a whipping boy of sorts for Bryant in the media. Bryant ripped Parker, and other teammates such as Kwame Brown, apart back in 2012 following a preseason loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
"Bryant continued, taking aim at his favorite whipping boy, Parker, calling him “the worst. He shouldn’t have been in the NBA but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. So we let him walk on.”"
Ouch. Some of that, Parker brought upon himself. Parker has taken some shots at Bryant in the past. He was not the biggest fan of Bryant, which prompted some of Bryant’s above comments.
On the court, Parker was basically the starting point guard by default. Sasha Vujacic, Aaron McKie and Jordan Farmar were the only other point guards on the Lakers in Parker’s two seasons in Los Angeles.
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In those two seasons, Parker averaged just under 32 minutes per game, scoring 11.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.6 steals. Those aren’t horrible numbers, but as Kurt Helin of NBC Sports pointed out, Parker wasn’t overly efficient and made more decisions.
If Bryant was looking for more material to rip Parker about, he may have just been provided some. While making an appearance on The Premium Pete Show, Parker discussed some of his toughest matchups in the NBA.
San Antonio Spurs point guard, Tony Parker, came up in the discussion. What he said about the future Hall of Famer may surprise you.
"“[I] gave Tony Parker buckets because he has my last name,” he said, via Jeff Garcia of NBC News 4 in San Antonio. “I destroyed Tony Parker when I played against him. He was too small.”To Smush’s credit, he did acknowledge Tony “wasn’t the Tony Parker that he is or was later in his career when I played against him.”"
Well then. While he did admit that Tony Parker wasn’t the player he was later on in his career, Parker quickly established himself as a top point guard. Tony Parker was an All-Star in Smush’s second season with the Lakers.
Looking at Smush Parker’s career splits, it is tough to imagine he was giving many buckets to Tony Parker. In his career, Parker averaged 7.1 points per game against the Spurs. That was the second lowest per game scoring average he had in his career against a franchise; he only averaged fewer against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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Hopefully, Bryant gets word of this sooner or later. Hearing his take on one his least liked teammates saying he destroyed a future Hall of Famer is something a lot of people would enjoy.