PARKER FINDS POSITIVES IN DOUBLE DOWNER
Former F Simeon Si star treasures experience i of recovery from 2nd serious knee injury
MILWAUKEE— Jabari Parker peeled off his Milwaukee Bucks practice jersey, kicked off his Jordans and took a load off in a sumptuous, oversized leather chair in the players’ lounge of the team’s sparkling new downtown practice facility. A full beard belied his age. A famously battered left knee did, too.
Only 22. Still with, one would hope, the world at his fingertips. Yet Parker, a 6- 8 forward, has packed a career’s worth of injury time— and then some— into the years since he left the South Side as one of Chicago’s greatest high school basketball players ever.
Five years ago, Parker, the state’s only two- timeMr. Basketball, was ramping up to do the unthinkable: lead Simeon to a fourth state championship in his four years as a starter. Now he’s two games into a comeback from the second torn left anterior cruciate ligament of his NBA career.
And Parker once thought losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in his only season at Duke was hard? Missing parts of his first four pro seasons— 142 games in all— because of those ACL injuries has challenged him more than any opposing player or team ever could.
“When it happened again … ” he said, sinking back into the chair and looking out a window as his voice trailed off.
This is where Parker has every right to feel unlucky, maybe even cursed. He could cry “why me?” and we all would understand. Once happens. Twice is a twist of fate beyond cruel. It could’ve been a career death sentence, but Parker didn’t just fight to get back under the bright lights for Act 3 of his NBA life. He embraced the pain.
“It happened again, and I’m glad it did,” he said. “I’ve been able to learn so much from it about endurance, about faith, and also it’s a good experience for me to be able to help other people who are going