San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker described breaking an NBA record for wins by a threesome as an “unbelievable accomplishment” on Tuesday (November 3).
Parker, alongside his Spurs team-mates Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili combined for a 541st victory on Sunday (November 1), moving the trio past Boston’s Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish for the most wins by a threesome in NBA history.
“Its hard to realise, to be compared to the Celtic’s trio with Bird or the Lakers trio with Magic, its like, I don’t know growing up in France I never though I’d be achieving something like that. I think I’ll realise more when I retire. Obviously its an unbelievable accomplishment and I feel very lucky to be with those guys for all those years, especially in professional sports its very rare that you play 12, 13, 14 years with the same team-mates and the same coach,” said Parker.
The team have won four NBA championships with Parker and he said he hoped to add to that tally this season.
“I think we have a great chance. I think there’s four or five teams who can really win this championship and I think we’re part of those 5 teams. Its going to take a lot of work, we know in sports nothing is guaranteed so we just have to go through the season and hopefully play our best basketball when the playoffs starts,” he said.
Parker, who took part in France’s bronze medal winning effort at this years European championships, said he planned to retire internationally after the 2016 Olympic games in Brazil.
“I want to finish in the Olympics in Brazil. I think like two or three years ago I said that will be my last competition, in Brazil, my last time I played for France, so hopefully we can qualify and have a great tournament and it will be just a great 15 years with the national team. So I want to finish on a good note, so that’s why it would be nice to go to Brazil,” he added.
Parker was speaking at a Tissot boutique in New York city. The Swiss watchmaker is one of his sponsors and recently signed a deal to become the NBA’s first ever-official timekeeper.