Parsons longs for redemption
Memphis forward goes to Germany for special procedure to help knees
Chandler Parsons pointed at his knees, the knees that have given him so much trouble since he arrived in Memphis, and began to explain how much that “big-ass needle” hurt the first time he went to Dusseldorf, Germany, this offseason.
Parsons has a needle phobia, and the scar tissue from three knee surgeries in three years was so thick that this particular needle initially had trouble penetrating.
But the 6-foot-10 Memphis Grizzlies forward had gone halfway around the world to become the latest pro athlete to take part in Dr. Peter Wehling’s Regenokine program, a blood-spinning procedure that hasn’t received FDA approval in the United States.
Anti-inflammatory proteins are drawn from a patient's blood sample and then reinjected into the problem joint.
Kobe Bryant made it popular earlier this decade. Alex Rodriguez and the late Pope John Paul II have used it. Parsons said Carmelo Anthony went this summer, too.
And so Parsons also joined the movement when he flew to Germany twice in six months, including the week before training camp began, for a five-day injection process in both knees.
“It’s far. It’s expensive. It doesn’t feel good. It’s boring. It’s not like you’re going to Fashion Week in Paris,” Par-
sons said. “At this point in my career, I’ll try anything. After the last two years, (expletive) sign me up to do anything just to have some relief and not feel the way I have.”
Why Grizzlies fans should root for Chandler Parsons
This desperation, more than the endearing words he published in The Players Tribune last week, is why Memphis should be rooting for Parsons on Friday night in the Grizzlies’ home preseason opener against the Atlanta Hawks.
Because no matter how much money we make, or what profession we choose, we can all relate to that feeling.
He's desperate to be healthy enough to play an entire season and be a bonafide NBA contributor again.
He's desperate to take part in full practices again, without having to ride an exercise bike or an Elliptical during certain drills that the medical staff won't let him do.
He's desperate to be loved by a fan base again.
He's desperate enough to go to Germany twice and spend thousands of dollars of his own money to have needles placed into his knee.
“Basketball is my life, and when basketball is taken away from me, I’m not OK,” Parsons said. “I’m pissed off. I’m sad. I’m angry. And then you say some things, you do some things, that aren’t appropriate and aren’t the right thing to do.”
These past two weeks, ever since Parsons returned to Memphis, have doubled as an apology tour, as another attempt at redemption.
He’s sorry for the way the first two years of his four-year, $94-million contract have gone, when he looked like a shell of the player who averaged at least 13.7 points and shot better than 37 percent from 3-point range in four consecutive seasons.
He’s sorry for the way he came off to Memphis fans, well aware now that his “Chancun” Instagram posts and sour demeanor didn’t play well in this market when he was hardly playing at all.
He’s sorry for not embracing the city, for not realizing that the accumulation of injuries had created a person he didn’t ultimately recognize, a person who was “bitter and scorned.”
What Chandler Parsons learned the past two years
It was all there in that very thoughtful piece he wrote for The Players Tribune last week. But if this all feels familiar, it’s because Parsons said a lot of this last year when he arrived for training camp after a disastrous first season in Memphis. As he puts it now, in retrospect, that was all a front for a man who was still in pain, “who wasn’t excited to come back here and go through the whole process again.”
It’s why Memphis fans should still be skeptical.
The fact that Parsons started Tuesday night against the Houston Rockets and scored 12 points isn’t enough. It’ll take months for him to build that sort of trust with Grizzlies supporters, and Parsons is smart enough to acknowledge that.
“It doesn’t matter how I feel now,” he said. “It’s all about sustaining that and staying consistent throughout the season, and not just playing 30, 40 games this year.”
It was Eric Gordon who convinced Parsons to go to Germany. Gordon had been like Parsons when he was in New Orleans, playing fewer than 50 games in three of his seven seasons there.
But then he experienced a renaissance with Houston the past two years and Parsons wondered how.
“I told my agent, ‘What does he do? Who does he work out with?’” Parsons said last week. “I basically hired his entire team.”
Which led Parsons to embrace yoga and Olympic weightlifting in hopes of strengthening the muscles around his knees. It also gave him the motivation to ignore his needle phobia and try Regenokine. Over five days, Parsons had needles filled with serum made from his own blood cells injected into the lateral and medial ligaments of both knees. He had eight more needles put in both legs for acupuncture therapy. He spent hours in different gyms and hyperbaric and cryogenic chambers.
Parsons described it as “a week of training camp before training camp.” But by the last day, when the last needle went into his knee, he didn’t even feel it.
“Look,” Parsons said, “it bothers me the last two years, more than you guys, more than any of the fans. I promise you that. I’ve learned a lot from the last two years. I’ve been humbled the last two years.”