Staff and wire reports
Tony Parker’s stopover in New York City on Wednesday night en route to Paris to join the French National team turned scary.
Parker told L’Equipe, the French sports publication, he was at a New York City nightclub with his girlfriend when a fight broke out, leaving him with an eye injury that will keep him sidelined for a while.
“I was with my friend Chris Brown, and me and my friends took some punches,” Parker said, according to the Associated Press. “So I’ll be missing the start of the French team because I can’t do anything for a week except keep the lens in and then take drops.”
The skirmish reportedly involved singer Brown and members of hip-hop star Drake’s entourage.
Attempting to shield his friend from broken glass that was flying during the melee, the All-NBA point guard was struck in the face, his eye injured.
Parker will have the eye re-examined Wednesday and said he is likely to delay by a week his joining the French national team in pre-Olympic training camp.
Parker described the nightclub scene to French reporters after arriving in Paris.
“They started throwing bottles everywhere. I don’t know what happened,” Parker said. “At first it was OK, but then it started getting worse, and when the plane landed, it was really hurting so I went straight to the ER.”
The Most Valuable Player in last summer’s European tournament when he led Les Bleus in scoring on their way to a second-place finish, Parker told L’Equipe he does not consider the injury serious and expressed confidence he would be able to join the team next weekend.