After the loss, a nostalgic Parker, the dazzling point guard who made France relevant on global hardwood, said he would no longer play for his home country.
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Star guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, NBA teammates for the San Antonio Spurs, bid emotional farewells to worldwide play Wednesday, August 17 after quarter-final losses at the Rio Olympics.
“We remembered what our coach said – they are not unbeatable”.
“We couldn’t play any better in the tournament”, Spain coach Sergio Scariolo said.
The U.S. women’s basketball team, the most dominant basketball in the world, is one win from a sixth consecutive gold medal.
“I felt like Spain was the Spurs tonight, and I was on the other side”, Parker said following France’s quarterfinals defeat. “I want to play five more years”. “I just said ‘thank you'”.
The U.S. team extended their Olympic winning streak to 48-0 since 1992.
He raved about Ginobili, and several USA players hugged and congratulated him after the game.
Parker, who has won four National Basketball Association titles with the San Antonio Spurs, exited Brazil without a medal but having achieved his goal of making France a champion, taking Most Valuable Player honours from his homeland’s 2013 EuroBasket crown. As with Manu, Tony announced this would be his last game in his national team jersey. “So, to finally get the thumbs-up from the doc that everything was okay was incredibly relieving and exciting, and obviously I’m very happy”.
“I know we can take it one step further because I know we have it in our hearts”, Petrovic said. “I want to play five more years”, Parker said. A stalwart attacker on the San Antonio Spurs, the winningest American pro sports franchise over the last two decades, the 39-year-old Ginobili has also been an worldwide star of huge magnitude.
Parker says his body can no longer take the extra duty of global play and still be effective over the 6-month National Basketball Association campaign. “It’s just life. I think there’s a lot of great guys – it was a great 10 years with Kobe and Shaq and all the rivalries and stuff like that – but everything comes to an end”. Which begs to question, even though they are obviously capable of locking up global competition, did they all think this gold medal was going to be given?
A team heavy with National Basketball Association players, Spain may face the U.S.in the semi-finals on Friday if the struggling Americans defeat Argentina later in the day. Earlier this week, Manu Ginobili of Argentina also said that he is done with worldwide basketball.
“I told the whole team don’t forget about what we accomplished in 2005 when we won the bronze medal it was 50 years since French basketball won a medal”. We played against a great generation of Spain, it was just a great rivalry. “They’re good. Another team full of pros”.
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“It’s going to be the same old dance”, Diana Taurasi said.
