Tony Parker has been one of the main reasons for the success of the San Antonio Spurs this past season and the amazing part of it all is that it may not have happened depending on how things turned out for the French point guard last summer when he injured his eye.
Parker has been back to full health this postseason after leading the team in scoring, but last summer when he injured his eye in a night club where rappers Drake and Chris Brown and their crews got into a fight, he thought his career might be over. Parker scratched a cornea in the incident at the club in New York City after bottles were thrown and a shard of glass penetrated nearly 100 percent of his left eye.
After the incident Parker wore a "therapeutic" contact lens and when he arrived in France to play for the French Olympic team he got surgery and saw a specialist so that he could be cleared to play. For a time he had trouble seeing and was forced to wear dark sunglasses to help with the pain, but after getting treatment he was okay. Following his treatment he had to put numerous drops in the eye and he said that he feared that his career could have ended there.
The Spurs are happy it did not, because Parker is playing some of the best basketball of his life as the playoffs are going. The team is back in the finals for the first time since 2007 and the team could end up facing LeBron James again if the Heat win, as they swept his Cavs last time around. Parker dropped 37 points to lead the Spurs in their Game 4 win to sweep the Grizzlies after winning 93-86 and he has been fantastic for the team all year, notching 18 assists earlier.
Tim Duncan has been playing out of his mind as well and he led the spurs with eight rebounds in the win and now the team has a week to wait for the finals to start and to see who they will play. If Miami wins the Heat will have home court advantage in the playoffs, while if the Pacers win the Spurs will get it back. The last time the Spurs faced LeBron he was much younger and now he is hungry for his second title.
Parker is averaging 23 points in the playoffs and he was fantastic in the Grizzlies series while playing in over 40 minutes in three out of the four games and missing just six shots in Game 4 and going 11-22 in Game 3. He scored 20 points in three of the four games and if the Heat or Pacers can't shut him down, the title will go to the Spurs once again.