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NBA FINALS: SPURS v HEATJune 5, 2013Tony ParkerMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q.  Tony, a few minutes ago Manu just called Timmy "a wise old man." For all of the ribbing that Tim takes about his age, what has changed about his game since '07 that you see now that allow him to still maintain such a level of excellence? TONY PARKER: That's a great question. I don't know. It's unbelievable what he's doing at his age. I think the number one thing is the way he take care of his body. He did a lot of different stuff the last couple of years, because he wanted to finish strong. This year he's playing at a very, very high level. It's a great example for me to follow, because everything that he won, as a team and as a player, to stay motivated and to keep playing at a high level, that's very hard to do. Like mentally, to stay motivated is unbelievable. And so for me, like I said, it's a great example to follow. And he's a great leader. Q. Tony, if the Heat put LeBron on you at any point in the series, as everybody thinks they probably will at some time, how do you avoid changing your game when that happens? Or do you have to adjust it slightly? TONY PARKER: For me I'm getting used to it. A lot of teams put taller guys on me, stronger guys to avoid me to go in the paint and go for my teardrop and stuff like that. I just have to keep playing my game and be aggressive and try to find stuff for my teammates, and try to get open with pick‑and‑rolls, or staggers and stuff like that. We'll see if they are going to do that. But I'm kind of used to it, because a lot of teams use that option. Q. It's been six years since you were a Finals MVP, and since then it's been the Lakers, the Thunder, the Mavericks all get to this point. Did you ever at any point in the last six years wonder if the championship window closed for this team, considering the age of your primary guys? TONY PARKER: I think for us it was just try to get the opportunity to go to the championship, and every year I felt like we're a good enough team to have the opportunity. Then it depends on a lot of stuff. You have to have a little bit of luck and you have to stay healthy. So a lot of factors come into play. But I think we kept believing in each other. Coach Pop and R.C. and Peter Holt did a great job of improving our team and making some trades, like the Kawhi Leonard trade, to improve our team. And you have to give a lot of credit to them. They stuck with us with the Big Three. And they improved the guys around us. That's why it makes it even more special now to be back in The Finals after six years. You appreciate it even more. Because when I was 21 and I won my first one, it was kind of fast and we think it's going to happen every year. We think it's easy. But after a lot of years in the league, you realize it's really hard to go to The Finals. Now we take nothing for granted. We appreciate every moment. And we'll see what happens. Q. We talked about Timmy a lot of times, we didn't say anything about the other two members of the power trio. I would like to know your opinion about the 2013 version of TP and Manu. TONY PARKER: I'm not sure I'm understanding the question. Q. I would like to have an opinion, a word from you, about yourself and Manu Ginobili. TONY PARKER: About this year? Q. Yes. Yes. TONY PARKER: I think Manu went through a lot of stuff. Obviously he had some injuries. But that's part of the game. Every team goes through injuries. I think Manu is feeling great right now. I really feel like he's saving his best for The Finals. He's healthy. We had ten days off. So I really expect Manu to have a great Finals and to play his best basketball. For me personally, I just try to keep staying aggressive and Pop has been challenging me the last three years to try to carry this team and try to an up‑tempo pace. So that's what I've been trying to do. Hopefully my goal is to try to win another championship. And we're playing the best team in the NBA. They have the best record. They are the defending champs. So we know it's going to be really tough. Q. Tony, on the same note, Pop points back to the Olympics as that turning point for you in your game, and your confidence kind of took back off. Why do you think you're playing at such a high level? And what do you try to impact in this series versus the Heat? TONY PARKER: After 2011 I had a great run with the national team. And you know Coach Pop and all the coaching staff, they watched all my games in the summer. So as Timmy and Manu got older, they were like, "You have to play like that every game now with the Spurs, and you have to play the same way and you have to be the same leader." So like I said earlier, it was a great challenge. It's a great honor to play for Coach Pop and the Spurs organization. And I took it as a challenge to improve my game and get better every year. I got a great example in Timmy, who has been unbelievable all those years. I want to try to do the same thing. I want to try to improve my game, as the responsibility and the ball came in my hands, I try to do more and try to deliver. Against Miami, it's the last step. It's going to be the hardest one, because winning a championship is very hard. Especially against a very good team in and LeBron, four‑time MVP, is going to be really tough. But it's a great opportunity for us to try to beat them. Q. Tony, tomorrow night there will be a lot of talk about the rust versus rest. I'm wondering what ways you guys have found to navigate the long layoffs between series. And also, what sort of value you're able to find in watching Miami against Indiana? TONY PARKER: It was a great series. It was really fun to watch. I'm a big student of the game. And I love watching games. I think you can learn a lot. Miami and Indiana was a hell of a series. As a basketball player, it was great to watch. You see that every little detail is big in those games. Obviously we learned a lot watching those games. I can't tell you what we got from that, but we learned a lot. Hopefully it will help us in our series against them. Q. And what do you do when you have a layoff like this? How do you keep an edge? TONY PARKER: It is what it is. We had ten days off. It's not really good, obviously. It's a little bit too long. Everybody is healthy. That's the main thing. You want to go through practices. You want to go hard, but you want nobody to get hurt. I think we did the best we can. And we'll see what happens. Q. What were your first impressions of LeBron back in the 2007 Finals? What do you remember? TONY PARKER: It was a young LeBron. He was still unbelievable, because he was just coming off an unbelievable series against Detroit, playing great basketball. I think in that particular series we played great defense on him, and it was just the beginning for him to start being the MVP. Right now he's a four‑time MVP, so it's going to be a different story. He's playing unbelievable basketball. And a little bit older. We'll try to do the best we can to try to slow him down. You can't stop him. That's for sure. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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