Through all the hate, Smush gets his props from those who count...

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Phil Jackson a Hall of Famer? Smush Parker Knows Why...

Posted by Roland at April 1st, 2007

You wouldn’t know it from his time in L.A., but Smush Parker has a wonderful smile.
The first time I took a real good look at Parker, he had just found his way into the NBA’s Development League.
For three seasons, I was the color commentator on local ESPN radio for the Roanoke Dazzle, one of the daffy league’s original teams. I always referred to D League as “Hardwood Survivor.” It’s a unique blend of the college and the pro game. The players are trying to catch a basketball lifeline, so they often play with the kind of heart-on-the-line abandon that could light the gleam in Jerry Sloan’s steely eyes. The games are played in the classic pro style (lots of high screen and roll, etc.), but, fueled by desperation, they often resemble a college pace and fervor.
Dennis Johnson, God rest his soul, understood that too. That season Johnson was coaching the Florida Flame, a talent-bare roster with a record of about 3-20.
Parker had flown into Roanoke at mid-season to join the Flame, a clear upgrade in talent that seemed to lift DJ’s spirits. You take your upgrades any way you can find them in the D League (why the hell did the NBA ever name it that? At least baseball had the good sense years ago to grade its minor leagues with As. You know, Triple A, Double A, etc.).
Anyway, Parker’s joining the Flame that night created a smidgen of fanfare at the Roanoke Civic Center, if I recall, and God knows, the D League needed all the fanfare it could get.
There was fanfare because Parker had had a couple of cups of coffee in the NBA, most recently with Phoenix.
Things are relaxed, to say the least, around the league, so I had a chance to chat up Smush before the game. He told me he had treasured his time in Phoenix because of the opportunity to work against Steve Nash in practice. Parker said he had learned important lessons that had made him a better point guard.
The excitement in the building jumped once Parker took the floor that night. His speed and quickness allowed him to dominate the game. In fact, he was well on his way to setting the league’s single-game assist record when he got into it with the officials and got tossed for a second technical (those D League officials with their constant whistles were always annoying; now a lot of them are doing the same thing in the NBA).
Despite Smush’s finishing out the game in the locker room, something had been established. Suddenly, DJ’s cellar-dwelling team had been magically transformed into a force to be reckoned with. It now had the best guard in the league.
Despite his ejection, Smush was all smiles afterward and shook my hand as I was leaving. His smile spread when I told him he had almost set the assist record.
His time in the D League, his time with DJ, proved to life-changing for Parker, who was but a child when his mother died of AIDS. He bounced around basketball, wound up playing a short time at Fordham, then threw his destiny to the wind and entered the NBA draft as an almost unknown early-entry commodity. Dennis Johnson, too, had faced his own challenges growing up one of 16 children in a Southern California household in the 1960s. He had played at junior college, added a season at Pepperdine, then declared early for the draft, also as an unknown, who just happened to catch the eye of then Seattle coach Bill Russell, who knew a thing or two about competitive toughness.
From this convergence of similar circumstances in Florida, Parker played his way into a contract with the Lakers, where he’s had quite a ride.
You know much of the story from here.
Became an immediate starter in a backcourt that featured the demanding Kobe Bryant.
Played without a guaranteed contract.
Pulled off the amazing feat of succeeding as a first year starting point guard in the NBA, which is just about as difficult as starting quarterback as an NFL rookie.
Yet, in addition to his quickness and speed and toughness, Parker knows how to use his smarts. What other New York playground player could step in to the highly structured triangle offense and pick it up so quickly? Imagine where we’d all be if Gary Payton had displayed Parker’s adaptability?
Anyway, what tells the important part of the story in L.A. is Smush’s smile.
It’s gone, vanished in the endless cycle of pressure. Replaced by a frozen mask.
I’ve interviewed Parker twice since his arrival in L.A. Guarded is the operative word. He’s not about to let anybody in his world right at the moment. Especially not a reporter.
He says all the right things, but I hate to bore readers by repeating cliches.
A big part of his burden in L.A. is the fans. They’re on his case constantly with those crazy expectations. “This team cannot win so long as it has Smush as its point guard,” is the steady and relentless refrain on the internet and radio talk shows.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the Lakers fans. Love their absolute passion. Love even more their demands for nothing short of total greatness.
My only point in this issue is, stats don’t really tell us much about greatness. If you don’t believe that, just ask the great Bill Russell. Actually, you’re better off looking up his career numbers. Like Smush, he long ago learned to wear the mask.
Anyway, I’ll do now what I should have done much earlier in this story. I’ll turn it over to the great Tex Winter to explain. He’s in the True Basketball Hall of Fame. I call it that because the supposedly Real Hall of Fame won’t let the 85-year-old coach in. It’s too caught up in politics and formula. Seems nobody in sports has much real appreciation for a truth-teller. Truth-tellers offend too many over-sized egos.
Anyway, here’s Tex’s take on Smush:
“He’s a tough little kid and a hell of a competitor,” Winter said. “I admire him for that. I’m still not totally sold on the job he’s doing. He has all that tremendous speed and quickness. But he gambles too much on defense and gets beat on the screen and roll (sounds like Tex describing Bryant’s recent defensive efforts).
“Still, it’s absolutely amazing what he’s done, considering where he came from,” Winter said. “He’s spent two years here as a starter. And I don’t think that’ll change.”
Why? Because Parker has enjoyed the support and admiration of the only person who matters—Phil Jackson.
“He certainly has,” Winter replied when I asked about Jackson’s backing. “I think Smush appreciates it. I think Phil has gotten more out of him than most coaches ever could. Smush knows Phil has a great deal of confidence in him.”If you read this column on a regular basis (quite a challenge since it doesn’t appear regularly), you know that I spend a fair amount of time lighting up Jackson for one transgression or another. He’ll soon be acknowleged as a Hall of Fame coach.
A lot of people assume it’s based on his coaching those nine NBA championship teams.
Jackson’s success, though, also has been keyed by his reading a guy like Smush Parker and seeing things in him that others don’t.
Jackson knows that in a season when Lakers have fallen right and left to an array of injuries, Parker has laced his sneaks up every night. Part of the reason, of course, is that without a guaranteed contract, Smush remains in the D League. He can’t afford to sit down, can’t afford to let go of the lifeline.
Long before anyone else, Jackson saw something else important. The Lakers need Smush’s grit, his toughness, his survival instinct, especially during these days when the Lakers usually struggle to put six healthy players on the floor for practice.
After all, only the rare ones like Derek Fisher or Smush Parker can earn Kobe Bryant’s respect.
I think it’s about time that a lot of Lakers fans recognized the intangibles and like Jackson learned to live with whatever Parker can grind out of the circumstances on any given game night.
I think it’s about time Lakers fans cease their nitpicking and give the kid from the playgrounds his due.
Maybe then we’ll see that smile again.

[7even]

Is that supposed to hurt my feelings? 

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

I dunno about you, but I'd definitely be worried if I was a Laker fan who sported the username "Get Rid of Smush NOW!!!".