Spurs coach Gregg Popovich may have a bone to pick with point guard Tony Parker for revealing the secret to the franchise's longevity of success.
U-n-s-e-l-f-i-s-h-n-e-s-s. Shh.
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Parker is averaging 12.5 points per game for the Spurs, whose 47-9 record would be the talk of the NBA if it weren't for those pesky Warriors (50-5). It's the second lowest point total of Parker's career.
Parker also is averaging the fewest minutes of his career at 26.9 per game. And he's absolutely loving every minute of it.
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"My first career I was behind Timmy [Duncan] and Manu [Ginobili] as the third option," Parker, 33, said to Yahoo Sports. "I was trying to get better as a player and a point guard. Then Pop gave me the key in 2011, and it was my team for four or five years. And now I'm back to being a third option [offensively], more of a distributor and more of a defender.
"It's like a third career for me, but it is great. I love my role. As long as we win. You know on our team, ego, we don't care about that. We just want to win a championship. If that's what I have to do to win a championship, that's what I do. I want to win the ring. Individually, I have plenty of accolades with All-Stars and All-NBA and stuff like that. It doesn't really bother me because at the end of my career, what people will remember is how many rings I got."
San Antonio's future now is in the hands of Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge, which is the way it should be, according to Parker.
"Now it's their team. They have to go, and 'The Big Three' [Duncan, Ginobili and Parker], we take a back seat," Parker said.
Whereas retiring Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant is making $25 million this season and shooting 35 percent from the floor, Parker, Duncan and Ginobili each have agreed to take less money to allow the Spurs to give a max contract to Leonard and to sign Aldridge to a max free agent deal.
And while Parker's scoring average is down, he leads all NBA guards in field goal percentage (51.4) and his shooting a career-best 42.9 percent from 3-point territory.
So while the 37-year-old Kobe's NBA ring total will go down as five -- and the count, for all intents and purposes, stopped after the 2012-13 season -- Parker, 33, stands at four rings and still counting
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