Departure allowing young duo to mature
Tony Parker’s final gift to the Spurs was one they didn’t see coming. If they had, they might never have let him leave in the first place.
They wanted him back last summer, but they were honest with him about why. They already had a starting point guard of the future, as well as a young backup they loved, too. If Parker returned, it would have been as a third-stringer and a mentor, but not much more.
So even if they were surprised when Parker opted for a bigger role in a teal-and-purple uniform, the Spurs gave their blessing because they understood his reasoning. He believed he had more productive minutes to offer, and at the time, the Spurs didn’t have any need for more of those.
But as Parker noted on Monday, “Time goes really fast,” and when injuries piled up during the preseason, things had changed. The Spurs were desperate for healthy point guards, and if Parker had stayed, he would have been a comfortable, reliable safety net.
This, though, is where Parker’s last contribution came in. By not being here, he gave Gregg Popovich no choice but to rely on kids who he wasn’t sure were ready.
And by walking away, Parker not only forced Derrick White and Bryn Forbes to grow up, he enabled the Spurs to move on.
Granted, as a 108-93 loss to Parker’s Charlotte Hornets proved on Monday, the Spurs haven’t exactly moved on to a new era of dominance yet. But on a night when he got to the same old rim with a couple of the same old blink-of-an-eyelash
moves in the third quarter, he wasn’t the difference.
When it mattered, the Spurs probably missed Rudy Gay more than they missed Parker.
That’s no slight toward the best point guard in franchise history, either. Monday’s pregame scene was a worthy tribute to the French dynamo whose 17-season, four-championship journey from teenager to legend in San Antonio might still be underappreciated.
He deserved a night of adulation, and the AT&T Center crowd was happy to give it to him. The only surprise was that he made it through a highlight video full of his trademark floating teardrops without shedding another one.
But in the middle of this celebration of the past, it was difficult not to think about the Spurs’ present, and how Parker might have fit into it. If he had come back for another year, he would have been ready when Dejounte Murray tore a knee ligament in the preseason and White injured his heel.
Parker would have opened the season as the starter, and he probably would have been a steady, calming influence. Forbes wouldn’t have been forced to play point guard, and White wouldn’t have been cast into the same fire he found when his foot healed.
But here’s the thing: As rough as it looked early on, both Forbes and White almost certainly are better off for having made those leaps without Parker to catch them.
Forbes looked overmatched and out of place at times, and White’s first foray into the starting lineup this season was an utter disaster. But with no trusted veteran around to replace them, Popovich stuck with them, and both have flourished.
“It kind of put me in a position I’ve never been in, and showed me what I can do,” Forbes said. “It opened my mind to different possibilities.”
It did the same thing for Popovich, who never would have dreamed last summer that his go-to starting backcourt would feature an undersized, undrafted sparkplug who’d never played point guard in his life and a raw, gangly second-year pro who spent most of his first in the developmental league in Austin.
A couple of months ago, he had no idea how good either of those young guards could be.
Now? Popovich is sure of something.
“We’d be lost without those two kids,” he said.
Chances are, neither Forbes nor White will become what Parker was, because Hall of Famers are rarer than the privileged fans of South Texas have been conditioned to think.
But what looks clear now is that both can be part of the Spurs’ future, and in a transition season like this one, that’s an important realization. Had Parker stuck around, they might not have made it yet.
“I don’t know what would be happening now if that was the case,” Forbes said. “None of us know. I just know guys have put in a lot of work and we’re finally getting opportunities.”
Sometimes, like on Monday, those opportunities aren’t seized. But Forbes and White will get more of them, and that’s something the Spurs should be excited about.
They can thank Parker for that. Had he stayed, the Spurs would have leaned on him, and probably would have felt just fine about it.
But by leaving? Parker might have done something even better.
He showed them it’s OK to lean on somebody new.