Tony Parker, an avid player for the French National Team every offseason, has experienced more injuries than the San Antonio Spurs had hoped for.
First, Parker dealt with an injury right above the right knee during a French team practice on Friday. This was after he suffered from some thigh pain earlier in the month.
Now, after sitting out against the team’s first game against Spain for more rest, Parker injured himself yet again during the second game against Spain and will now have to undergo an MRI to evaluate the level of seriousness. While he sounds confident in recovering and playing in Eurobasket next month, the result of the MRI will let Parker decide whether he should continue playing or rest until Spurs training camp begins.
Tony Parker has been playing for the French National Team since 1997. It may be time to start taking a break. (Photo: Mark Runyon, Basketball Schedule)
Parker has been putting quite the load on his body after playing through a full season and a postseason through the NBA Finals. He suffered a hamstring injury as well in the finals against the Miami Heat.
Placed in the season MVP argument the past couple of seasons, despite being no competition for LeBron James or Kevin Durant, Parker has proven to be the key cog in San Antonio’s offense. Though not coming up as strongly as expected in the NBA Finals and deferring to Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard, Parker’s role in the offense is too crucial for the Spurs to risk.
These types of injury occurrences beg the question as to whether or not the Spurs should be more restricting towards letting their players for their national teams over the offseason. For example, the decline of Manu Ginobili has often been credited to the strenuous amount of work he’s put on himself by consistently playing for the national team of Argentina year after year.
Being the most international team in the league with 11 players eligible for their national teams outside of the U.S., there’s plenty of conversation for international play with the Spurs management over the course of the offseason. Parker’s example, though, illustrates the potential harm in allowing them to play on.
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