Tony Parker
Tony Parker
William Anthony "Tony" Parker Jr.is a French professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association. The son of a professional basketball player, Parker played for two years in the French basketball league before entering the 2001 NBA draft. He was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the 28th overall pick in the draft and quickly became their starting point guard. Parker has helped the Spurs win four NBA championships in 2003, 2005, 2007 and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth17 May 1982
CountryUnited States of America
It was a big win. We were motivated to play against Miami. Obviously, they are one of the best teams in this league.
I've just got to stay aggressive and play my game, ... Do whatever my team needs me to do.
A lot of teams like to put a bigger player on me. A lot of times, I backed him off but didn't hit the shot. I've got to hit the shots.
I was very, very motivated. I felt like I owed my teammates because I played so bad two nights ago. It was just one of those games. Nothing went my way. So I watched some film with (Popovich) to see what I could do better.
It was great to find my teammates tonight. Everybody was making shots and Finley was hot so I tried to find him when I could. We were all feeling good tonight.
He said it very plain, very clear. He said, 'We need to repeat.' We're just about the only team that's won a championship lately that did not repeat.
When Boston and Orlando told me they were going to pick me at 21 and 22, I figured I don't need to do a workout for a second -round team. Boston and Orlando never drafted me because they said I was too skinny and no European point guard will make it in the League.
It was tough in overtime. Maybe we ran out of gas. We should've won the game. We had them up four with nine seconds to go (in regulation) and we should've won this game. We had a chance, and we should've won the game and we just gave it away.
Every time we play Houston, we have a hard time scoring. Whenever you make the outside shot, it opens things up for us.
We wanted to make sure we didn't come out flat. It was great energy from the beginning.
That's what happens when you are the champions; every night they want to give you their best game. Especially on back-to-backs, it's tough. The (loss) against New Orleans, we had played against Sacramento and (the Hornets) had two days off so they had a lot of energy. So we just have to be ready to play every night, but it's tough.
I think I was too much in a hurry, trying to make stuff happen.
I thought I penetrated pretty well - we just missed a lot of easy shots. It's just one of those nights where offensively it didn't go our way.
Manu being out hurts us. Before he went down we were starting to establish our roles. We just have to do our best until he gets back.