puis dans la liste qui s’affiche, cliquez sur AdBlock
Par Pierre-Andréa Fraile | Journaliste sportif
While he deplores a certain lack of recognition within the league for some, Tony Parker nonetheless had everyone on his side during his heyday. In fact, a former pivot recently used him to restore his reputation.
His absence from the 75th Anniversary Team understandably caused a stir, and not just in France. Admired in his own country for his exploits on the NBA, Tony Parker is also admired in the United States, where he achieved them. In fact, the snub reserved for him by the league in 2021 was very poorly perceived by certain figures in the industry. Proof that the former French point guard is still regarded as a benchmark.
Kendrick Perkins settles scores and mentions Tony Parker
Less mentioned these days on the other side of the Atlantic, Parker’s name nevertheless comes up from time to time in heated discussions. This was recently the case, for example, as the Thunder qualified for the Western Conference Finals. So, for Kenyon Martin, the current OKC team would dominate the 2012 team by attacking… Kendrick Perkins. An exit the latter took apart in Road Trippin’:
Kendrick Perkins: I don’t mind being criticized, but when I hear that I would be a liability to my team…. Let me throw out some facts to prove otherwise. The Oklahoma City Thunder never made it to the Finals before Kendrick Perkins joined the team. Why not? Because it couldn’t beat the Lakers, who had Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.
Now, let’s talk about that run to the 2012 Finals. In the first round, my mission was to defend Dirk Nowitzki. We swept him and you can go and see the footage, he was frustrated with me. In the second round, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Go look at their stats and you’ll see that they did absolutely nothing. And then, in the conference finals, guess who had to defend on Tim Duncan: Kendrick Perkins.
Guess also what adjustments we made during the series. We were down 2-0 and decided to change everything on defense. Here again, you can go and look at the pictures: I defended and I muzzled Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili! I muzzled them! Check out the highlights of Game 3! Incidentally, I went after Steve Kerr, who was commenting on the game at the time, because he said I should be taken out of the rotation.
And even during the Finals, I signed a few double-doubles. So if you want to say something against me, make sure you have the facts straight. If I was able to defend against Dirk, Pau Gasol and Tim Duncan, I should be able to defend against Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. That’s what I was getting at.
The message got through.
