“My son is like the queen on the chess board,” said Sonny Parker.
Then, the son, Jabari Parker (28), played for the Chicago Bulls.
And the father had faith.
He had faith, even though his son’s left knee was damaged: he had broken it twice.
(…)
Five years have passed since that phrase from the father and son, Jabari Parker, has experienced everything as a basketball player. In particular, he has experienced the bad thing, the burden of his knee.
All of that had come crashing down on him at the beginning of the course, in his first commitments as a Barça player, a month ago. So, Jabari Parker doubted everything.
He doubted and, as a result, his surroundings doubted.
Accustomed to the tactical lightness of the NBA regular phase, Jabari Parker hesitated at the Palau Blaugrana. He was waiting, with open hands, for the delivery of a pass that did not arrive. He seemed inconsistent in assisting, nor did he choose the best shooting options.
–What if we were wrong…? –the experts asked themselves in the corridors of the Palau.
Very few, then, saw his versatility. Very few saw the queen who, almost at her will, moves on the chess board.
The doubt was legitimate.
With Mirotic out of the picture, this low-budget Barça had put the present and future in the hands of Willy Hernangómez and Jabari Parker.
And on the first dates, they both limped.
Some voices excused Hernángomez. They interpreted that he had arrived short of vacation, saturated by the last basketball World Cup, the one in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
And that, therefore, would become more in tune with the days.
(As has been happening).
The Jabari Parker thing was another story.
Jabari Parker put himself in the hands of the Lord.
Jabari Parker is the fifth among five brothers, a religious man who trusts everything to God and destiny and invests his free time in reading, a passion that had been instilled in him by his mother, Lola Finau, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Saints. of the Last Days.
In other times, he seemed destined to be a rock star.
He signed contracts with Jordan Brand.
They offered him forty million dollars for two courses.
He had averaged 20 points per game (2016-2017).
Number 2 in the 2014 draft (after Andrew Wiggins and ahead of Joel Embiid, Aaron Gordon and Dante Exum), Jabari Parker had gone to the Milwaukee Bucks before blowing out his knee at two different times and plunging into the territory of darkness . From there, he had bounced around between franchises, from Milwaukee to Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, Sacramento and Boston, before becoming a free agent. In 2022, the Celtics had left him off the roster. In his last year, he didn’t have a team.
He lived in Hawaii.
In those circumstances, he had arrived at Barça as an uncertain bet: at zero cost, in the mists. Roger Grimau has invested hours in metabolizing the mechanisms of European basketball. In three of the last four games, Jabari Parker has been the Barça top scorer. Against Red Star, in the Euroleague, he had added 20 points after closing the match with a triple. This Wednesday, against Baskonia, also in the Euroleague (6:30 p.m.), the scouts will have him under the microscope.
