Former NBA star Tony Parker fitting right in at Main Event

The baskeball player Tony Parker may be new to the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event, but the NBA All-Star and 2007 NBA Finals MVP is, by no means, a stranger to the game of poker.

That was clearly evident as the former San Antonio Spurs four-time world champion sat at the secondary featured table today under the bright lights of the world’s most prestigious poker tournament, chasing the coveted Main Event bracelet. Parker, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black jeans and black sneakers, was calm, cool, congenial and collected throughout his first experience in the Main Event, something that will come as no surprise to anyone who watched him closely during his decorated 20-year professional basketball career.

“Oh, I’m not nervous, not at all,” Parker told Casino City during a break in Friday’s action, the second of six Main Event starting flights. “I’m a very patient player. Patient and composed. That’s how I like to think I was on the basketball court and that’s how I am at the poker table.”

The fit 39-year-old French American, who looks like he could still play an everyday NBA schedule, retired in 2019 after playing 17 seasons with the Spurs and one with Charlotte. Parker, who helped kick off the Day 1B festivities by taking care of the “Shuffle Up and Deal” honors, said this was his maiden voyage into the Main Event because when it’s typically played in the summer he was always busy playing hoop with his French National Team or at the Olympics.