San Antonio Spurs man Tony Parker still hopeful of an NBA season
Three times NBA World Champion and San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker believes the NBA season can still be saved, despite the lack of progress made so far in the labour dispute. The league has been in lockout since July 1st and analysts believe that chances of an NBA season are increasingly slim.
The players and owners met again on Saturday in New York, but no breakthrough was achieved. Still, Parker doesn’t believe the whole season will be lost, hoping that sense will prevail in the end.
“Everybody’s hopeful,” the 29 year old Parker said. “I think we’ll have a season.”
He owns a basketball team in France, for which he could play if the league in the United States doesn’t begin on time. Parker has hinted to this effect in the past and reaffirmed those beliefs during his recent interview,
“If the sense is we’re going to start in two weeks, I’m not going to go over there,” Parker said. “If they tell me we’re not going to start until January then, yeah, I might go play.”
The point guard has achieved almost all there is to achieve in the game. His various exploits with the San Antonio Spurs are well known and Parker is regarded as one of the premier point guards of the last decade. He is also a former NBA Finals MVP, so there really can be no questioning his pedigree.
However, Parker does want one more shot at NBA World Championship glory with his aging San Antonio Spurs teammates, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. The trio have been the main stay for the Spurs for almost a decade now and have won it all on multiple occasions.
Yet, last season’s 1st round playoffs exit at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies’ is a disappointment the team wants to overcome next season. However, more than them, NBA Commissioner David Stern and Billy Hunter of the NBPA are the ones who hold the key to that. For the while, Parker and his companions can just wait and watch.
In the circumstances, some rumours have also arisen regarding the future of Spurs talisman Tim Duncan. The advancing years of Duncan means that he cannot be around for much longer and a number of sources have suggested that he might retire because of the lockout.
Tony though doesn’t agree with them. He believes Duncan still has at least a couple of years left in him.
“I see myself playing at least two or three more seasons with Timmy,” Parker said.
If the trio of Parker, Ginobili and Duncan can have stay together for the next couple of years, don’t expect them to just be “also rans”.
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