“I tell you what,” one of the player-development guys for the Austin Toros said a few picks into last week’s NBA Development League draft, “we better start thinking about whether we want Smush.”
“Smush? Really?”
Until recently, Smush Parker had been posting some impressive numbers in the NBA, playing for six teams over the last seven years. In two years as a starting point guard with the Lakers, he averaged 11 points a game. We’ve learned, however, that Smush has an attitude problem. Last year, for example, he tussled with a female parking attendant in Miami.
Dell Demps, the director of player personnel for the San Antonio Spurs, who are the Toros NBA affiliate, allowed that he had made some inquiries with Smush’s last NBA employers, the Los Angeles Clippers. “I asked if they were okay with Smush,” Demps told the dozen or so men sitting around a horseshoe table, anxiously waiting to make the Toros first pick of the draft.
“And?”
“They didn’t say no.”
Demps let that hang there a second.
“I believe the quote was, ‘He doesn’t symbolize the program.'”
Perhaps the comment was meant as a compliment. After all, it was coming from the Los Angeles Clippers, quite possibly the crappiest franchise in professional sports, a team that has had only six winning seasons in its 38-year history. This was the organization Smush Parker wasn’t good enough for.
Question was, was Smush good enough for Austin? Should Smush symbolize the Toros? Would he end up being more trouble than he was worth? Would his wounded pride just get in the way of what the D-League is all about – developing the talent of younger, less jaded talent?
I was taken with the idea that the Toros, who kick off their fourth season Nov. 28 at the Austin Convention Center, would become a Smush Parker kind of team: a team of fuckups, head cases, and dead-enders looking for redemption. Something told me that head coach Quin Snyder might even share the sentiment. Not that Snyder is a fuckup himself – far from it. The dude has an impressive résumé: In college, while double majoring in philosophy and political science, he helped lead Duke to three Final Four appearances. He has a law degree and an Master of Business Administration. In each of his first four years at Missouri, he led the Tigers to the NCAA tournament. Then came Ricky Clemons. Arrested for assault, Clemons began making all kinds of accusations of academic improprieties against Snyder’s coaching staff. Though most of the charges weren’t substantiated, Snyder’s program was put on probation, and two years later, one of the most promising young coaches in college basketball was sent packing. Snyder and Smush both might have something to prove.
As it happens, though, Snyder didn’t get to dance with Smush Parker. The Rio Grande Valley Vipers took him before Snyder could.
“Oh, thank you!” a relieved coach said. That made things easier for the Toros, who went with guard Robert McKiver, out of the University of Houston. Easier but a little less interesting, I’m afraid.
This article appears in November 14 • 2008.