Early in the 2012 Bradley men’s basketball season, the Braves took on Texas Pan-American in the second regular-season game ever played in Renaissance Coliseum.
Although the Braves cruised to a 78-61 victory over the Broncos, a crowd of 3,151 was in attendance to pay homage to former Bradley star and newest addition, at the time, to the Bradley Athletics Hall of Fame.
Coming back for his hall of fame induction was the first time Anthony Parker, a Naperville, Illinois native, had been back on Bradley’s campus since some of the major renovations made to campus, more specifically in the athletic department.
“It looks completely different from when I was a student at Bradley,” Parker said in an exclusive interview with The Scout. “When I was there it was Hausler Hall, but now they have a big workout facility over there with a track, and all the workout equipment and the facilities that the guys practice in and the weight room.”
Seeing the newer campus additions was an amazing sight to Parker and he said it brought back memories of his time on the Hilltop.
However, what made it more personal for Parker was the chance to show his two children the campus, which he said had been an unknown to them.
“It was just such a great experience for me to go take my family there and my two boys and kind of walk them around,” Parker said. “That was the first time they saw Bradley and where I played, and before that it was just kind of a name.”
Parker’s Bradley career is one that goes rather unheralded among the history of Bradley basketball.
When compared to other Bradley basketball greats such as Hersey Hawkins and Chet “The Jet” Walker, Parker never averaged over 20 points a game. However, he was named to the All-Missouri Valley Conference team three times, which only Hawkins and Walker have done.
Parker, who was a Brave from 1994-1997, also ranks 10th all-time on Bradley’s scoring list with 1,683 points, fifth all-time in three-point shots made with 195 and eighth all-time in three point field goal percentage with 37.9 percent.
His best season came in the 1995-1996 season, his junior year, when he averaged 18.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. That season also saw the Braves reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 1988 season.
“When our name was called, knowing that we had made the NCAA tournament my junior year, that was a highlight,” said Parker. “That’s something that we had strived for since I got there.”
But it wasn’t statistics or the big moments that Parker remembers the most. In fact, he said it was the down time with his fellow players that he remembers and holds most dear.
“There were some big games, and big moments and big shots,” Parker said. “But the things that are most memorable, and what I miss the most, are the times around the guys in the bus and in the airport.”
After his career with the Braves, Parker moved on to a lengthy professional career in which he played 16 seasons for four different NBA teams, two different European teams and one CBA team.
Parker entered the NBA in 1997 after being selected by New Jersey Nets 21st overall in the first round. He became the first Brave to be drafted in the NBA since Hersey Hawkins was selected sixth overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in 1988. The only other Brave that has been drafted since Parker was Patrick O’Bryant in 2006 by the Golden State Warriors with the ninth overall pick.
After the 1999-2000 season, which he spent with the Orlando Magic, Parker was without a team.
That’s when he found an option in the Maccabi Tel Aviv, an Israeli Euroleague team.
“Nobody leaves the NBA because they want to,” Parker said. “It was a situation where I didn’t have a team and wasn’t able to make a team in the summer, [so] overseas became an option.”
The Euroleague proved to be a boon for Parker’s career. With Maccabi Tel Aviv, he won two Euroleague titles in a row and an Euroleague MVP award.
His European stardom came full circle in 2005, when Maccabi won a friendly match against the Toronto Raptors 105-103, where Parker hit the game winning shot with 0.8 seconds left to sink Toronto, who eventually signed Parker back into the NBA.
Although the Euroleague became dear to Parker, the Raptors offered him the chance to return to the NBA, which was the break Parker had hoped for.
“I was content to stay there and I developed the mentality that you only have a short amount of time to play this game,” Parker said. “But then at a certain point, the NBA did become an option. It just worked out that I came back.”
Signing back into the NBA in Toronto, Parker became the starting shooting guard for the Raptors and made the playoffs twice with Toronto in 2007 and 2008.
Following the 2008 season, Toronto decided not to sign Parker back, but he was not without a team this time around. The Cleveland Cavaliers signed him to a two-year deal, where Parker became teammates with then-reigning 2009 NBA MVP LeBron James.
Playing with James gave Parker a glimpse into the life of an NBA superstar.
“You get a peek into what a guy like that on that level goes through all the time, constantly being scrutinized,” Parker said. “He withdrew it well; I think he took it well and kept everything in perspective.”
While Parker gained a superstar teammate, he also gained a good friend, one that he could discuss the game of basketball with.
“It was refreshing that I could have serious conversations, [and] deep, deep conversations about philosophy, how you guard this and how you do that,” Parker said. “The biggest surprise to me was how intelligent he was about the game.”
Being a teammate with James lasted only two seasons, and his career in Cleveland lasted only three.
Following the 2011-2012 season, Parker retired from professional basketball, but that didn’t keep him away from the game.
His retirement challenged Parker to find a way to stay near the game that he loves. He tried his hand at broadcasting through the Sportscast Review at Syracuse University, but he found it wasn’t for him.
Parker said he wanted to find a profession that could fuel his competitive spirit, and he found it in the front offices as a scout for one of his former teams, the Orlando Magic.
“I’m more on the personnel side where I’m scouting for trade targets or free agent signings,” Parker said. “You learn so much on this side of the game that you aren’t exposed to as a player.”
Along with scouting free agents and trade prospects, Parker also scouts college and developmental league talent.
The journey Anthony Parker has taken as a professional in basketball has taken him around the globe and settled him in Orlando.
Parker still keeps in touch with the teammates he created memories and spent time with in his career at Bradley, and recalling games and memories of past contests rarely comes up.
“We don’t talk about games,” Parker said. “We talk different times being around so much with each other, it’s all those things you remember.”
But, of course, there are few games that they like to bring up now and then.
“Every time we beat Illinois State,” Parker said with a laugh. “That was [always] a fun moment.”
