A lot to keep eye on as camp nears

There are plenty of questions as the Spurs open training camp at their practice facility next week, but one big decision must be made before camp begins: Will the team insist that point guard Tony Parker continue wearing the protective goggles he sported during the Olympics in London?

Parker didn’t like the protective eyewear, but it was necessary after a freak injury that required surgery to remove a shard of glass from his left cornea. He pitched the goggles into the stands after Spain eliminated France from the medal round, declaring he was done with them for good.

When he arrives for his physical exam ahead of Tuesday’s start of camp, he may discover the club’s well-established history of erring on the side of caution with injuries demands he be fitted for new goggles.

“I’m not sure that’s a decision ‘Dr. Parker’ gets to make on his own,” Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said. “We haven’t seen him yet. We’re now several months, post-injury. We’ll have a better picture of it when we see him. Somebody very qualified will examine that eye.”

The All-NBA second-team selection, and the Spurs’ top scorer and assist man last season, suffered the injury June 15. He was a bystander during a bottle-throwing incident involving musicians Chris Brown and Drake at a New York nightclub.

Parker was one of six Spurs who competed in the Olympics during part of the summer Buford declared “very productive” for the team’s core, in large part because everyone made it through competition healthy.

Parker played on the French national team with big man Boris Diaw and rookie combo guard Nando De Colo.

Veteran guard Manu Ginobili led Argentina to the bronze-medal game. Center Tiago Splitter helped Brazil qualify for the medal round. Guard Patrick Mills was one of the tournament’s top scorers in guiding Australia into the medal round.

“I think it was a good summer in a lot of different areas” Buford said. “Starting off with Kawhi (Leonard) and DeJuan (Blair) playing on the (USA Basketball) select team. Both of them had a very good showing and represented themselves well. Kawhi’s turn in the summer league, while short, was really impressive. Cory Joseph also had a good run through that.

“Obviously, we had a big crew of guys at the Olympics and they all played relatively well. After the Olympics concluded we had a really good month of open gym with a lot of our young guys.

“Of course, Tim (Duncan) was in there long before the open gym started. I just think the professionalism with which our group approaches the season is fun to see.”

Well aware that Blair believed the Spurs would trade him after he fell out of the playing rotation during the playoffs, Buford empathized with the fourth-year forward’s situation.

“We understand the way he feels,” he said. “If we were in his shoes we may feel similar. Having said that, DeJuan helped us win a lot of games and we have not had anything presented to us that puts our team in a better position than moving forward with DeJuan.”

mikemonroe

@express-news.net

Twitter: @Monroe_SA

Lot to keep an eye on as Spurs’ camp nears

By Mike Monroe

There are plenty of questions as the Spurs open training camp at their practice facility next week, but one big decision must be made before camp begins: Will the team insist that point guard Tony Parker continue wearing the protective goggles he sported during the Olympics in London?

Parker didn’t like the protective eyewear, but it was necessary after a freak injury that required surgery to remove a shard of glass from his left cornea. He pitched the goggles into the stands after Spain eliminated France from the medal round, declaring he was done with them for good.

When he arrives for his physical exam ahead of Tuesday’s start of camp, he may discover the club’s well-established history of erring on the side of caution with injuries demands he be fitted for new goggles.

“I’m not sure that’s a decision ‘Dr. Parker’ gets to make on his own,” Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said. “We haven’t seen him yet. We’re now several months, post-injury. We’ll have a better picture of it when we see him. Somebody very qualified will examine that eye.”

The All-NBA second-team selection, and the Spurs’ top scorer and assist man last season, suffered the injury June 15. He was a bystander during a bottle-throwing incident involving musicians Chris Brown and Drake at a New York nightclub.

Parker was one of six Spurs who competed in the Olympics during part of the summer Buford declared “very productive” for the team’s core, in large part because everyone made it through competition healthy.

Parker played on the French national team with big man Boris Diaw and rookie combo guard Nando De Colo.

Veteran guard Manu Ginobili led Argentina to the bronze-medal game. Center Tiago Splitter helped Brazil qualify for the medal round. Guard Patrick Mills was one of the tournament’s top scorers in guiding Australia into the medal round.

“I think it was a good summer in a lot of different areas” Buford said. “Starting off with Kawhi (Leonard) and DeJuan (Blair) playing on the (USA Basketball) select team. Both of them had a very good showing and represented themselves well. Kawhi’s turn in the summer league, while short, was really impressive. Cory Joseph also had a good run through that.

“Obviously, we had a big crew of guys at the Olympics and they all played relatively well. After the Olympics concluded we had a really good month of open gym with a lot of our young guys.

“Of course, Tim (Duncan) was in there long before the open gym started. I just think the professionalism with which our group approaches the season is fun to see.”

Well aware that Blair believed the Spurs would trade him after he fell out of the playing rotation during the playoffs, Buford empathized with the fourth-year forward’s situation.

“We understand the way he feels,” he said. “If we were in his shoes we may feel similar. Having said that, DeJuan helped us win a lot of games and we have not had anything presented to us that puts our team in a better position than moving forward with DeJuan.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net
Twitter: @Monroe_SA

Buck Harvey: The way Parker has come to see his Games

LONDON — These were supposed to be Tony Parker’s Olympics. He was supposed to be the host, in Paris, his name in lights in the City of Light.

Instead, he’s teasingly close to his homeland, leading a splintered French team, knowing these will likely be his only Olympics.

But he walked along the Thames Thursday night seemingly OK with that, and what happened last month had something to do with this.

Parker thinks sitting in the dark for a week may have changed the way he sees things.

In many ways, these are still his Olympics. He attended a marketing extravaganza Thursday night in a large building turned into something called “Club France,” and he was clearly the headline performer.

“This has been crazy,” Parker said as he went from interview to dignitary to sponsor, but there was little reluctance. The same Parker who likes to duck out of the Spurs locker room was around as long as necessary.

This fits with a child of the 1992 Dream Team. Parker was mesmerized then, and no one caught the attention of the 10-year-old as Michael Jordan did.

Parker didn’t know much at the time. He just knew he wanted to do that.

He was short and skinny and already working on a floater to score over the big kids. Within nine years, Parker was not only in the NBA, he was also playing with David Robinson, a Dream Team member.

What followed is sometimes overlooked in San Antonio. Parker became the best basketball player in the history of his country, and his status rose accordingly. In 2005, when Paris battled London for the right to be the Olympic host for 2012, Parker traveled with the French delegation to make the final pitch.

London won, and Parker made headlines. He said the decision proved the IOC was “Anglo-Saxon. They prefer the English.”

He later backtracked, saying he had been quoted out of context. But maybe the comment simply reflected the disappointment. Paris, after all, had been considered the favorite.

So Parker could have hung on to all of this, especially given the context of his career. These are his first Olympics and likely his last. In four years Parker will be 34 years old with 14 years of NBA grind on his body.

This one chance isn’t a good one, either. France’s best big man, Joakim Noah, never fully healed from a late-season injury and isn’t here. Nicolas Batum, because of insurance reasons, joined the team just 10 days ago. And Parker is struggling to adjust to goggles.

The best non-American point guard in the Olympics also faces this trio in his opening game Sunday: Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Russell Westbrook.

But Parker shrugged Thursday and acted as if life couldn’t be better. He’s staying in the village, with fellow Spur and French teammate Boris Diaw again as a roommate, and he’s already shared a meal with Patty Mills (Australia) and Tiago Splitter (Brazil).

He’s looking forward to his first opening ceremony the way 30-year-old multi-millionaires rarely do, and he doesn’t see his relationship with France ending. After his playing career is over, he says he wants to be president of the French national team.

Parker knows the odds are against his team now, but he said this is why he loves sports. Anything is possible, he said, and his dream is modest.

“All I want is a medal,” he said.

It’s an attitude that can be traced to that night in New York. Parker was in the wrong place, and a piece of glass also ended up in the wrong place. After eye surgery in Paris, he was ordered to stay inactive and keep light out of his hotel room for a week before flying back to San Antonio.

Parker said he could do little else but think, and here is what stuck with him: “Life can change, just like that.”

Life did change. These aren’t his Olympics. But he’s at someone else’s, and he sees that isn’t so bad.

bharvey@express-news.net

Twitter: @Buck_SA