Wants to return to the US to coach college ball. Currently working in Europe:
What Parker really wants to do someday is coach college basketball in the U.S. He wants all the bells and whistles that come with it — the packed campus arenas, the Dick Vitales, the rivalry games and, above all, the NCAA Tournament. He played three years for Bill Carmody at Northwestern, but he didn’t get his college basketball fix. If you followed any journalists on any social media platform in March of 2017, you probably heard that Northwestern made its first NCAA Tournament that year, more than a decade after Parker left. That he missed out on the Big Dance gnaws at him to this day.
Parker left France at 14 to play high school hoops in his dad’s hometown, Chicago. He picked Northwestern over scholarship offers from Baylor, Georgia Tech and Marquette, leaving the school after his junior year to pursue professional hoops. He played five seasons in France, including two solid years with Paris-Levallois Basket, before a knee injury ended his career.
Parker climbed the ranks on the staff, and in 2018 he served as interim head coach for six months before Zvezdan Mitrovic’s hiring. As Mitrovic’s right-hand man, Parker is on the path toward a head coaching gig in Europe — thanks to a stingy defense, ASVEL is one of the surprises in the EuroLeague, sitting one game out of a playoff spot in its first regular-season appearance in the competition in 10 years.
“Whenever T.J. becomes a head coach, he’s going to be great just because of his knowledge and background,” says David Lighty, the former Ohio State star who plays for ASVEL. “Being around the Spurs, talking to those guys and seeing how they run things, I can say (the Parkers) bring that mentality from San Antonio over here and T.J. has embraced that. He’s been around it for 20-plus years. Mixing that with his understanding of the game has been great.”
https://theathletic.com/1455404/202...j-has-eyes-on-coaching-in-college-basketball/
What Parker really wants to do someday is coach college basketball in the U.S. He wants all the bells and whistles that come with it — the packed campus arenas, the Dick Vitales, the rivalry games and, above all, the NCAA Tournament. He played three years for Bill Carmody at Northwestern, but he didn’t get his college basketball fix. If you followed any journalists on any social media platform in March of 2017, you probably heard that Northwestern made its first NCAA Tournament that year, more than a decade after Parker left. That he missed out on the Big Dance gnaws at him to this day.
Parker left France at 14 to play high school hoops in his dad’s hometown, Chicago. He picked Northwestern over scholarship offers from Baylor, Georgia Tech and Marquette, leaving the school after his junior year to pursue professional hoops. He played five seasons in France, including two solid years with Paris-Levallois Basket, before a knee injury ended his career.
Parker climbed the ranks on the staff, and in 2018 he served as interim head coach for six months before Zvezdan Mitrovic’s hiring. As Mitrovic’s right-hand man, Parker is on the path toward a head coaching gig in Europe — thanks to a stingy defense, ASVEL is one of the surprises in the EuroLeague, sitting one game out of a playoff spot in its first regular-season appearance in the competition in 10 years.
“Whenever T.J. becomes a head coach, he’s going to be great just because of his knowledge and background,” says David Lighty, the former Ohio State star who plays for ASVEL. “Being around the Spurs, talking to those guys and seeing how they run things, I can say (the Parkers) bring that mentality from San Antonio over here and T.J. has embraced that. He’s been around it for 20-plus years. Mixing that with his understanding of the game has been great.”
https://theathletic.com/1455404/202...j-has-eyes-on-coaching-in-college-basketball/
