Euroleague – quarters – matchday 5
BarçaOlympiacos
In what was a sporting and to a certain extent spiritual retreat, Jabari Parker (Chicago, United States; 29 years old) had been training alone in Hawaii for several months, getting in shape after two serious knee injuries that wiped out his entire projection in basketball, as he went from being Duke’s university star to number two in the NBA draft in 2014 – ahead of Embiid and Jokic, for example -, from a rookie who attracted flashes and rivals to a player in the store who after Leaving the Bucks he went through five teams (Bulls, Wizards, Hawks, Kings and Celtics) to get off the ground, to a certain anemic point of will. Juan Carlos Navarro, general director of Barça basketball, had followed him, and this summer he thought of contacting his agent to ask if he would be interested in doing a trial. “He accepted ipso-facto,” they admit from the club. Months later it has been shown that everyone hit the nail on the head, the capital of the player in the Barça team, already renewed until 2026, a figure revered by fans for his spectacularity and magnetism both on and off the field. The bastion that Barça now clings to, which today plays its place in the Final Four at the Palau and against Olympiacos in the decisive duel of the series (9:00 p.m. Movistar), since they are 2 to 2.
The tests on Parker were carried out in August behind closed doors, and it soon became clear that the power forward was not coming on vacation, since before being told anything he asked for the Ciudad Deportiva court to exercise. A few days later, he passed all the medical tests and Roger Grimau and his staff scheduled him for two solo training sessions. “They rubbed their eyes,” says an authoritative voice; “They saw that he was a special player, that he had a lot of basketball and that it was about getting him to adapt to European basketball.” The management of the club, although a little worried because he was too introverted, were satisfied with his willingness to integrate and learn, even because there was not a single tattoo on his body – “it is neither better nor but, simply different and a trait of personality”, they reveal -, so they extended a contract for one season. The passing of the months confirmed the best omens. “He has become one of the pillars of our project,” Josep Cubells, responsible for the basketball area and vice president of the club, proudly resolves. He is also a very dear person.
In the locker room he soon earned the respect of the group, capable of breaking up games or even repairing them – in the third game against Olympiacos or this weekend against Gran Canaria he went to extra time thanks to his free throws at the horn. , triple jumper or stronghold in the mid-distance shot, also spectacular with his dunks. “He is very humble and never checks his ID in basketball, he doesn’t think he’s a crack,” they say from the locker room. “He beats you easily because of how he is,” says another teammate, who remembers that after his renovation he invited a snacker to the locker room and, to everyone’s surprise, they loved it even though it was vegan, a way of life for Parker for two years. . The same thing happens with the Palau, which has already turned him into his right eye. Maybe it’s because of his eternal smile on the parquet – “I’m privileged because I don’t have to get up at six in the morning to load boxes or drive trucks, nor do I have to worry about making ends meet,” he admitted to La Vanguard-; or because every morning he takes the subway (he lives in the center of the city) to go to training and soak up the city and its people, now that he is starting to say words in Spanish; or because it is not unusual to see him at the Balmes Cinemas to watch subtitled films or jog – on Monday he did it – through different neighborhoods; or even because he does not miss the city’s sporting events because he has been seen at the Camp Nou, at the Godó tennis court and even at a youth team tournament in Castelldefels the weekend that he rested against Obradoiro.
From a great-grandfather born in Tonga evangelized by missionaries and moved to the working-class and conflictive South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, Parker grew up with a ball in his hands – his father Sonny played for six years in the NBA Warriors – and strong family and Mormon ties. . “We didn’t have much at home, but my parents never told me that. But if you have good values, you can be poor, but you can feel rich at heart. That is the education I received and I was always a happy child,” he explained to Gigantes. In Barcelona he is also one after spending torturous years with injuries.
Avid reader and lover of music, defender of human rights – “I was one of the first athletes to speak out against police violence against black people. I felt that responsibility as a public figure. Violence cannot be tolerated. “You shouldn’t harm someone just because you disagree with you,” he said in an interview for the ACB in November. Parker already knows that he will stay for a while, as he says he wants to see all the beaches and even the Montserrat mountain. also Tibidabo. First though, professional as he is, he hopes to leave his mark on the parquet. The occasion occurs in the decisive match against Olympiacos, where he will go out again for the first warm-up with his cell phone and AirPods to score at his own pace, where he will ask for the ball to underline his nerves of steel, where he hopes to seal Barça’s passport towards the Final Four of the Euroleague.
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2024-05-08 03:15:00
#Parker #trial #pillar #Barcelona #Basketball #Sports
