Spurs' Parker Becomes 3rd-Youngest Player to Reach 1,000 Games
San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker played the 1,000th game of his career in Tuesday's 95-81 victory over the Miami Heat, making him the third-youngest player in NBA history to reach the total, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Parker reached the 1,000-game mark at 32 years and 318 days, placing him behind only Kevin Garnett (32 years, 165 days) and Kobe Bryant (31 years, 184 days) in that distinction.
While he was not quite the fastest to get there, Parker did set a record for most team wins in a player's first 1,000 games, with the Spurs owning a 718-282 mark in his appearances.
The previous record was held by Scottie Pippen, whose teams went 715-285 through 1,000 games. Pippen played his first 833 games for the Chicago Bulls, followed by a brief 50-game stint with the Houston Rockets and a four-season, 272-game run with the Portland Trail Blazers. He later returned to the Bulls for his final season in 2003-04, but he had passed the 1,000-game mark at that point.
Parker, meanwhile, has played all 1,000 games with the San Antonio Spurs, making him one of just 17 players in NBA history to log that many appearances for the same franchise.
Over that time, Parker has won four NBA championships and an NBA Finals MVP (2007), along with selections to six All-Star games, three All-NBA Second Teams, one All-NBA Third Team and the 2002 NBA All-Rookie First Team.
He also has two awards in the last two years for FIBA Europe Player of the Year, not to mention impressive career-long averages of 16.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 5.9 assists.
While the 32-year-old point guard's numbers have declined a bit to 14.8 points, two rebounds and 4.9 assists this season, the drop can partially be attributed to injuries, along with the Spurs' desire to limit his minutes. Parker has averaged fewer than 30 minutes per game in each of the last two seasons, after playing more than 30 per game in the previous 11 campaigns.
