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In a shocking development, an ESPN Twitter poll has revealed that 47.7% of the public thinks that Tony Parker is the best point guard in the league. I'm not sure that I've ever come across anything like that before. Sure, Spurs fans back their boy and a couple of pundits have come out in favor of calling Parker the best at his position, but as far as I know, this is the first time that Tony has won over a significant portion of fans.
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Honestly, it's not too hard to understand why Tony is usually reduced to a honorable mention in conversations about the league's best PG. He's not the best scorer at his position, he's not a pure point guard and although his jumper has come a long way, he's not a great shooter. He is a great finisher, a tough competitor and you can win with him as your guy. That's the usual defense for Tony -- he has three four rings and a Finals MVP award.
I guess that fourth ring did it for the public.
In NBATV's Champions Revealed, Gregg Popovich held his arms out wide and in reference to Tony's game when the Frenchman first arrived in San Antonio he said, "Here's John Stockton and and on the other end of the scale here's you. My goal is, I don't want to make you John Stockton," the coach then brought his hands together in the middle and continued, "but I'd like to bring you here."
It took some time, but that 'happy middle' is where Tony resides and he's become a great all-around basketball player. It's nice to see that the public is giving the TP some respect.
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Speaking of polls, the NBA released the results of their annual GM survey about a week ago. After winning another championship, the Spurs did pretty well this year. Here's a list of where they finished.
- When asked what team will win the 2015 NBA Finals 46.2% responded with the Spurs. The Cavaliers were second with 15.4%.
- When asked about the best point guard, Tony Parker finished third behind Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook with just 7.1% of the votes.
- Tim Duncan was viewed as the fourth best center with 10.7% of the votes. Dwight Howard received 42.9%, Marc Gasol 25% and Joakim Noah with 17.9%.
- Kyle Anderson was voted the third biggest steal of the draft.
- Tony Parker finished second to Dirk Nowitzki as the best international player.
- Kawhi Leonard came close to beating out LeBron for best perimeter defender in the NBA. LBJ garnered 25% of the vote to Whi's 21.4%. In the same category, the GMs gave both Klay Thompson and Andre Iguadala 7.1% of the votes which tells me that a couple GMs have consumed a little too much Klay-Aid. Iggy's still one of the best, Klay's okay.
- Gregg Popovich received 92.9% of the votes for best head coach, which seems low. I'd love to know who voted for Lionel Hollins over Pop.
- Extraneous G was also voted the best manager/motivator of people, the best in-game adjuster, and the coach that runs the best offense.
- San Antonio was called the third most fun team to watch behind the Warriors and Clippers.
- My main man, Boris Diaw, was voted the league's best role player, which is both true and a strange thing to say about the guy who played the most minutes in the Finals for the team that took home Larry.
- Finally, the great Timothy Theodore Duncan was named the best leader. It's hard to argue with that.