Something Tells Me Tony Parker's Homecoming Reception Will Be Much Better Than Kawhi Leonard's

For the first time in his 18 seasons in the NBA, Tony Parker will enter the AT&T Center and head to the visitors locker room. As we know, over his first 17 seasons in SA he won 4 titles, the 2007 Finals MVP, and is one of the pillars of the Spurs dominance over the past 20 years. Given he was taken 28th overall back in 2001, I’d say the Spurs got a pretty decent return on their investment. In looking at the franchise all time leaders, here’s how Parker’s Spurs run finished

2nd in games played with 1,198

4th in points with 18,943

8th in 3PM with 506

4th in 2pt FGM with 7,058

5th in FTM with 3,309

1st in AST with 6,829

6x All Star

Career 17.9/2.9/5.1 on 46/30% playoff averages

Safe to say he is one of the greatest Spurs of all time and will be forever adored by the fine people of San Antonio. Given how he’s played this year in CHA (9.4/3.8 on 45% shooting in 18.6 minutes) it’s clear he still has some game left in him at age 36, and it’s too bad he wasn’t able to prove he could still play after dealing with injuries last season. Even though I knew int wasn’t possible, once the Spurs started to lose all their guards in the preseason, I wished the Hornets did the right thing and found a way to let the Spurs have Parker back. Seeing him in that Hornets uniform is still so weird, it just doesn’t look right.

So now that he’s coming back to his old stomping ground, you can bet your bottom dollar he’s going to get one of the best reactions you’ve ever seen. Certainly better than Kawhi that’s for damn sure. Not only did he have a billion times the success, but you could tell it killed him to no longer be a Spur. I imagine he envisioned him ending his career in SA, but he felt he had more basketball in him and couldn’t just retire after Pop told him they were moving on. I wish he got the Kobe/Dirk/Duncan treatment of only playing with one team their whole career, and I bet there won’t be a dry eye in the house when he is introduced and they play that tribute video.

Seeing as how it’s a slow Monday afternoon, why not relive some of his best moments as a Spur? There could be young stoolies out there that don’t really remember just how dominant Parker was. His floater changed the game, there is no doubt about that.

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What a legend.