Hope he’s right…
Tony Parker believes Celtics can learn valuable lessons from 2014 Spurs
Tony Parker believes his team reached basketball nirvana because of an NBA Finals loss the previous season. As great as San Antonio teams were regularly during that time, Parker said motivation from a crushing loss to the Heat in 2013 drove the Spurs to what likely was the best hoops of their golden era.
“For the Celtics,” Parker said recently, “that’s what they have to do.”
Ime Udoka, an assistant coach for that Spurs team, wasted no time delivering a similar message to the Celtics. Immediately after the final loss to the Warriors, Udoka told his players they would need to use the experience to propel them forward. He wanted the Celtics to learn from Golden State’s consistency and IQ.
“He was with us in those years,” Parker said. “So he can definitely take some stuff from what we had to go through. I played with him as teammates and had him as a coach. He’s been through everything with us, so he knows better than anybody how to bounce back from a tough NBA Finals loss.”
“For me, the way we lost in 2013, it created what happened in 2014,” Parker said. “Maybe one of the best finals in NBA history. Maybe the best Spurs basketball that we played. In 2014, the way we played, the passing game, everything, we were maybe at the highest level of my whole career. It started with a tough loss in 2013.”