Emotional return for Parker, fans; then Spurs lose.
Former star basks in AT&T warmth
The night before the strangest road game of his 18-season NBA career, Tony Parker spent the evening at home.
Busy plying his trade in the unfamiliar purple and teal of the Charlotte Hornets, Parker had not visited his mansion in northwest San Antonio in more than four months.
He passed Sunday night in his old house with an old friend. Tim Duncan came over, and the two former Spurs greats swapped war stories deep into the late hours.
“You start talking like an old guy,” Parker said. “Time goes fast, that’s all I can say. Time goes really fast.”
By the end of the night, Parker was reliving old times at his former team’s expense.
Just as it had been so often during the previous 17 seasons, Parker’s team left the AT&T Center victorious.
All-Star guard Kemba Walker pumped in 33 points and made seven 3-pointers to key a 108-93 Charlotte victory and help make Parker’s homecoming game a success.
“I am drained, physically and emotionally,” Parker said when the night was over. “It was a great memory for me that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”
Monday night beget a lovefest between Parker and the city that watched him grow from an unseasoned teenager into a champion.
It marked the second time a
player who had won four NBA titles and at least one Finals MVP had returned to face his ex-team.
The other came when Parker’s boyhood idol, Michael Jordan, returned to face the Chicago Bulls after joining Washington.
The night began with a tearjerking tribute video on the large screen overhead, bearing the tagline “Merci Tony.” Parker watched intently and stonefaced.
He was introduced to a long, sustained ovation — in contrast to Kawhi Leonard, who returned to the AT&T Center with Toronto earlier this month to a venomous reception.
The applause returned with 4:50 left in the first quarter, when Parker checked into a game in San Antonio as a visitor for the first time.
When Charlotte coach James Borrego returned Parker to the court with 17.6 seconds left, to dribble out the clock on the Hornets’ second victory of 2019, the crowd cheered again.
Moments later, Parker and Popovich met in an embrace at the scorer’s table.
“I expected nothing less,” said Popovich, until this season the only NBA coach Parker had known. “Tony is a wonderful human being and a great player. He deserves all the love.”
As far as a motivator goes, love seems to take a backseat to disdain.
Having spanked Toronto 125107 in Leonard’s return on Jan. 3, the Spurs (25-20) could not seem to muster the same kind of fire for Parker’s homecoming.
The Hornets controlled the game from the second quarter on, won the second-chance battle 22-6 and trailed for only 20.3 seconds of the second half and none of the fourth quarter.
LaMarcus Aldridge posted 28 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Spurs, while Derrick White added 18 points. The rest of the roster combined to go 20 of 53.
“We were a step behind the whole first half,” said White, whose impossible job it was to try and contain Walker. “Personally, I felt like that was my worst defensive performance all season.”
Though Walker was the star of the night for the Hornets (20-23), Parker was the man of the hour.
When Parker came off a screen a buried a familiar pocket jumper with 2:55 left in the third quarter, the Spurs crowd cheered his first points in the AT&T Center in an opposing uniform.
The 36-year-old did not play well all night, going 4 of 12 for eight points after starting 1 of 7.
Parker, however, came alive to spark Charlotte in the fourth quarter with a six-point spurt. This part was vintage Parker.
“He is a point guard who was never afraid to get in the lane and challenge bigs with his floater, with his spins, with his feet,” Spurs center Pau Gasol said. “He’s just very crafty and very smart.”
There was a time Parker could not have envisioned such a night at the AT&T Center. A free agent last summer, Parker sensed a vanishing role in San Antonio and signed with a Charlotte club that promised him a defined role as Walker’s backup and sometimes running mate.
Borrego said he was surprised the Hornets landed Parker. The Spurs were surprised to see him go.
“I’m not going to go back to that,” Parker said. “I’m just going to enjoy today.”
Before the game, Charlotte forward Nicolas Batum — Parker’s longtime teammate on the French national team — said he had never seen his friend so nervous.
Borrego, too, wondered what kind of butterflies Parker might be battling. He briefly considered starting Parker for the first time this season, then decided to bring him off the bench in the name of normalcy.
A former Spurs assistant making his first return as a head coach, Borrego was sensitive to the swirl of emotion Parker had to have been feeling.
Tim Duncan never had to endure the spectacle of returning to play against the team he carried to titles. Neither did Manu Ginobili.
Among the most decorated Big Three in NBA history, Parker stands alone in that regard.
“Seventeen years, he’s poured blood, sweat and tears into this organization, now he’s coming back to compete against them,” Borrego said. “This man is a pillar of the Spurs organization. His number is going to be up in those rafters someday.”
Monday was Parker’s first return to the AT&T Center since signing with Charlotte, but it won’t be his last this season.
Next month, Parker is scheduled to speak at Ginobili’s jersey retirement ceremony.
Until then, Parker’s appearance with the Hornets will have to tide over San Antonio fans eager to relive days gone by.
Back in town, Parker helped shift the focus to the Spurs’ storied past, which for a night was better than their present.