101 Greats of European Basketball

Two-time
EuroLeague MVP
The number of American players who
played in Europe is, at this point, almost
unimaginably huge, but we can count on
one hand the ones who won three Final
Fours. There are now three of them:
Anthony Parker with Maccabi Tel Aviv
in 2001, 2004 and 2005, Mike Batiste with Panathinaikos
in 2007, 2009 and 2011; and Kyle Hines with
Olympiacos in 2012 and 2013, plus CSKA Moscow in
2016. As good as the others have been, only Parker
can claim to have been votes as a full-season Euro-
League MVP two times, the only player to have that
distinction so far.
Basketball in the genes
Parker, who was born on June 19, 1975, in Naperville,
Illinois, was an excellent shooting guard. With a
father who played basketball at the University of Iowa,
a mother who was a basketball cheerleader, a brother,
Marcus, who also was a player, and a sister, Candace,
who became a star in the WNBA, there’s no doubt that
Anthony had basketball in his veins.
As all future stars, Parker already stood out in his
high school years in his hometown, and even more at
Bradley University, where he averaged 11.0 points and
4 rebounds in his freshman year. However, a couple of
years later he was already putting up 18.8 points, 6.5
rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. His best weapon
was his three-point shot (42%). You could see he was
a great shooter from the beginning. In 1996, he was a
member of the U22 USA team together with Tim Duncan
and Paul Pierce. In the title game against Canada for
the Americas Championship, he scored 19 points and
helped the USA advance to the 1997 World Championship
for Junior Men.
In the 1997 NBA draft, Parker was selected by the
New Jersey Nets with the 21st pick of the first round
and immediately traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. However,
his NBA dream didn’t become reality because of
injuries and other circumstances. After spending three
seasons between the NBA and the Continental Basketball
Association, Parker made the best decision of his
sports life: He moved to Europe. Likewise, the Old Continent
was fortunate enough to see the arrival of one of
the finest Americans ever to play here.
Parker managed to adapt little by little and produced
a very good season with Israeli League and national cup
titles. But the big achievement was winning the 2000-
01 FIBA SuproLeague in that season of two top-level
competitions on the continent. In the Israeli League,
Parker averaged 14 points (48% three-point shooting),
4.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists. In the SuproLeague he
had similar numbers: 14 points and 5.3 rebounds. The
FIBA Final Four was played in Paris with Maccabi, Panathinaikos,
CSKA Moscow and Efes Pilsen. In the semis,
Maccabi defeated CSKA 86-80 with 17 points from Nate
Huffman and 14 by Parker. In the final, Maccabi beat
Panathinaikos 81-67 in the start of a rivalry that would
mark the start of the 21st century. Huffman and Arriel
McDonald scored 21 apiece, while Parker had 13 points.
Tel Aviv to Rome to Tel Aviv
Parker took a break for the start of the 2002-03 season
to be with his wife for the birth of their first child.
101 greats of european basketball
Anthony Parker
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