Parker is just a little younger than I am, a little taller than I am, and, most importantly, he was just a strongly international person coming to America, and that made him very easy for me to relate to at the time.
Belgian but raised in France by his African-American father and Dutch mother, Parker was coming to play in the States for the first time after playing a few years in France. This was in 2001, when I was coming back after living abroad for the first time (at my odd and obscure international school in Wales) and experiencing that coming to America culture shock over again.
It has been incredible to watch Parker grow. Young but incredibly quick, smart and talented, with an amazing ability to get in to the lane and find the open man, he just kept getting better as the years passed.
I remember distinctly when Parker emerged as a potential superstar one playoff round against a mediocre team. He just kept driving and getting in to the lane, driving and getting in to the lane, and the other team had no answer for him. I think he did that for four straight games. That was when the league realized that if they didn't have an answer for Parker, they didn't have an answer for the Spurs.
Parker has quickly emerged as one of the fastest players in the league, maybe second only to Suns star Steve Nash. He works so well with Duncan and Ginobili, and he's still learning.
There are ways to stop Parker - the Suns did a respectable job keeping him out of the lane - but he's tough to catch once he gets moving, and once they start forcing him to make jump shots, a lot of teams have learned that he can do that to. He's also very good at penetrating to draw the defenders and then finding perimeter shooters to drain 3's.
Parker is so much fun to watch, even when his game isn't at its peak. He's one of the best reasons to watch Spurs basketball.
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