Tony Parker in Euroleague

[Jazz]

Yesterday I watched a documentary on Tony Parker called "The Final Shot." For a European to go to the NBA at 19 and have the career he had there, especially as a point guard who is listed at 6 foot 2, is incredible. I did wonder though, given that his abilities were surely better suited to the NBA, how big a star he would have been in Europe had he never gone over to America. Popovich wasn't sold on him initially and the Spurs only drafted him quite late in the first round, so it isn't inconceivable that he might not have made the move. Prior to that, he only played a couple of seasons for Paris basket. In 2011, during the NBA lockout, he played a Eurocup game for ASVEL against Valencia and scored 34 points. His record with France was quite mixed until 2013. (Although he deserves credit for being a successful NBA player committed to playing for his national team.) In this documentary he claims that if it wasn't for Spain, France would have won every gold medal during this period. Obviously not a claim which stands up to scrutiny, because as good as Spain were (and still are) this is ignoring Serbia, Lithuania, Greece plus the USA (!!) and Argentina's golden generation.

Parker is smaller than most of the top Euroleague PGs of his era, less creative and a worse three point shooter. Papaloukas was probably a comparable shooter but much taller and with far better court vision. Terrell McIntyre was also a smaller and more scoring focused point guard but an excellent outside shooter.

So, how do we think Parker's career in Europe would have worked out had he stayed? Does he move to CSKA or Barcelona after a few years in France and become a Euroleague scoring legend? Or does he become a perennial regular season top scorer for Chorale Roanne or SLUC Nancy who Interbasket posters and Euroleague CEOs don't think can play for a contender? Or does he lose motivation for the game when he never gets a shot at the NBA?

Anyone got any ideas? I find this an interesting "what if" question.

[Katastroika]

I have seen Parker three times in my life "live" in arena, two were competitive national team games, one a friendly where he was old already (2015). Only thing I can say is that I have never seen such a point guard with this combination of speed, dribble and finishing abilities around the rim combined with pure point guard qualities. (last one is "symbol of point guards that can't shoot" - copyright - interbasket ).

I think it's total nonsense that they would have won every gold if there wouldn't be Spain, history simply shows that quite well. On the other hand without him they wouldn't have done even the things thy did. Ironically they took two WC medals after Parker retired from national team where main players were Batum/Diaw and in crucial moments Heurtel and De Colo/Gobert.

He was the best of a generation from European players even in his generation there were incredibly talented players from Greece, Spain and Ex-Yu on his position. But as you said someone who was much more suitable to NBA than European basketball. On his peak 2009 (in an disappointing season for Spurs) he scored almost 29 points in play off with heavy usage and just slightly less than 3 TO per game with 54% FG percentage in postseason - something to this day no Euro point guard can even dream of. He alwasys showed up in all other post seasons too and if Gregg wouldn't have so big ego and would have searched a foul instead of letting Ray Allen shoot they would have one titly more putting him in serious discussion for one of greatest players in NBA history. Interestingly as we all know they had one more offense afterwards and Gregg made fatal decision to go via Manu who had terrible game instead of letting Parker drive. I am sure that Parker would have scored that one and made them champions

All this Spurs team was fantastic (bench included!) but somehow Parker's contribution is pretty underrated as he always was in the shadow of first Robinson / Duncan, than Duncan / Kawhi. All this Spurs team is a masterpiece of Spurs team led by Popovich, something build up to last and succeed and he was one of their most valuable pieces.

But back to your question - he would be a star in a pretty star stacked Euro basketball epoch. Most probably the biggest one.

[Mindozas]

He was pretty much unstoppable in NT games when in shape and without injury worries, that's quite good criteria for EL games too. Moreover he would be much better prepared, with better team chemistry as with NT you have limited time to reach all that. There's no question to me that he would be top star here.
Regarding all these gold medals with NT if not for Spain... He surely goes a bit too far here. It was not only Spain in his way back then, but the same Greece, Lithuania, Russia used to stop French journey to the top, unless he means only these times when Spanish NT kicked them out

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Change of rules and extending the 3 point line was huge for Parker. Before that he lacked the space to effectively penetrate in european basketball and yeah, that was a big deal. In 2013 he finaly got more freedom and converted into a whole different player accordingly.
That being said what would happen if he stayed in europe for his whole career? Imo he wouldn't develop into a player he became in the NBA. He might work on other stuff and eventualy become a great player, but I doubt he would become a star.