Deep in the Heart of Texas

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/basketball/nba/03/13/tony.parker0319/index.html

Tony Parker never expected that he'd become an All-Star in San Antonio so quickly, or that he'd get on one knee for a TV starlet from Corpus Christi, Eva Longoria

Posted: Tuesday March 13, 2007 12:44PM; Updated: Tuesday March 13, 2007 3:32PM

By Alan Shipnuck


Tony Parker and Eva Longoria.

It's All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas, and the NBA's most glamorous couple has just arrived on the red carpet outside of Pure nightclub. The mere sight of Tony Parker and Eva Longoria sets off a mini-stampede among the assembled fans, photographers and overcoiffed TV talent. The club is giving Parker and Longoria big bucks to host a party, and running this publicity gantlet is the price they have to pay. Longoria, effortlessly working the crowd, looks dazzling in a revealing wraparound white top, short shorts and gold high heels that match her bling; Parker wears a beige suit and a faraway look in his eyes. Sensing his discomfort, Longoria takes charge as if she were the All-Star point guard. "We're over here," she whispers, turning Parker toward a bank of photographers.

"Now we're over here," she says, guiding him farther down the red carpet.

"And we're going to do one more over here," she says, spinning him toward another cluster of cameras. Finally, she gently removes Parker's hand from hers and steps away to be photographed without him. There is a reason she got top billing on the party fliers: Longoria is a TV starlet, tabloid siren and fashion trendsetter; her fiancé is merely in town for his second straight All-Star Game.

Taking in the spectacle, Parker offers a wary half-smile. "This is Eva's world," he says, "not mine."

Soon they are herded inside, to a VIP section overlooking the dance floor. Thousands of commoners have paid $20 or $30 a head to attend; spotting Parker and Longoria, a sweaty mass of camera-wielding clubbers surges against the glass wall that separates them from their hosts. As the night goes on, the celebrity wattage increases, with Cameron Diaz, Nicky Hilton and Dennis Rodman among the boldface names stopping by. Sequestered in the VIP area, Parker finally exhales, rapping along with the thumping hip-hop and ordering bottle after bottle of Cristal for his guests. He and Longoria exit the club at 3 a.m. and then spend another hour gambling. When they call it a night, the All-Star tip-off is 13 hours away.

Arriving at the arena the following afternoon, Longoria relays her pregame pep talk. "I told Tony to take some aspirin, because it was a long night of partying," she purrs. "He might be a little sluggish out there. He might be a little tired."


Eva Longoria supports Tony Parker courtside between "Desperate Housewives" shoots.

This is Tony Parker's world: a low-slung, windowless building sheathed in aluminum on the outskirts of San Antonio, set amid medical clinics, churches and mini-malls. This is the Spurs' practice facility, a structure befitting the franchise of no-nonsense superstar Tim Duncan and buttoned-down coach Gregg Popovich. On a team that prizes the puritan work ethic, Parker is usually the last player to leave the practice court, thanks to his daily ritual of extra shooting drills. Today is no exception. It is a couple of weeks after the All-Star Game, which means Parker is back to business. Long after his teammates have left the gym, he's stroking free throws, changing baskets to force himself to adjust to different backdrops.

As Parker finally leaves the court to head to the weight room, Popovich talks about how the 24-year-old balances the sobering responsibilities of running the Spurs and his glitzy life with Longoria. "Tony Parker is one of the most mature young people I've ever been around," says Popovich. "He's never been late to a practice, he's never missed a shootaround. His dedication to this team is total."

Well, total might be a bit strong. Two nights earlier, in a 107-91 home win over the Toronto Raptors, Parker had game highs of 27 points and nine assists, guiding the Spurs to their sixth victory in what at week's end was a season-high 12-game winning streak. (San Antonio's 45-18 record was third best in the league.) Minutes after stepping off the court he beelined for a local airstrip, where a private jet awaited. He is coy about his ultimate destination -- "Wouldn't you like to know?" he says with a twinkle -- but when Parker returned to San Antonio 24 hours later, Longoria was in town, too.

This kind of jet-setting is perhaps not ideal for the stretch drive, but Parker has some experience working around Longoria's schedule while she's in Los Angeles shooting Desperate Housewives, the hit show that has made her a household name. On Jan. 28 he scored seven of his team-high 19 points in overtime to help beat the Lakers 96-94 in L.A. After the game he proceeded directly from Staples Center to the Shrine Auditorium to escort Longoria to the Screen Actors Guild Awards. In the next day's USA Today, Parker's on-court heroics earned all of one sentence in the sports section. The life section featured a huge color picture of him and Longoria on the red carpet, Parker's sharp gray pinstripe suit matching the color of her flowing Vera Wang gown.

Such treatment confirms his journey from an unknown Belgian-born, Paris-raised ballplayer to an international celebrity who to certain demographics -- say, housewives who subscribe to US Weekly -- is probably the most famous face in the NBA. "Oh, he's so Hollywood now," says Duncan. "That's what we call him: Hollywood. We kill him all the time."

Parker takes the abuse in stride. "We're a family," he says, "and I know the guys want me to be happy, no matter what they say." Indeed, backup point guard Jacque Vaughn says, "I'm married with two kids, and that's the norm in this locker room. So maybe we live through Tony a little, with all the fun he's having out on the town."

A recent evening would have been an especially felicitous time to be Tony, as Eva was cuddled up next to him in a dimly lit San Antonio restaurant. In faded jeans, a baggy sweatshirt, Uggs boots and no makeup, Longoria, 31, projects a persona completely different from the glamorous vision in Vegas. Of course, she still looks hot. (Her hotness has actually been quantified by the helpful staffers at Maxim, who for two years running placed Longoria No. 1 on their list of the world's 100 hottest women.) Since they began dating 2 1/2 years ago, Parker and Longoria have never lived in the same city, and all the long-distance pining has had the predictable effect: They can't keep their hands off each other.


The couple will face even more scrutiny before their wedding at a French castle.

Theirs is a classic case of opposites attracting. The 6'2" Parker is soft-spoken and reflective; the 5'3" Longoria is outgoing and brassy, her laugh a full-blown honk. They have a few key interests in common; for example, both are epicureans and oenophiles. Tonight's dinner is preceded by a lengthy, animated discussion with various restaurant staffers about the wine list. "Two glasses a night," Parker counsels. "It's good for the heart."

Longoria stole his in November 2004 during a chance meeting in the Spurs' locker room. Says Parker, "She came to our game for one reason: to meet me."

"Tony, gimme a break," Longoria objects, rolling her eyes. "Growing up in Corpus Christi" -- 150 miles southeast of San Antonio -- "my dad was always a big Spurs fan, so I took him to a game for fun. We were in the stands, and a team official asked if I wanted to meet the players after the game. I had no interest but my dad wanted to, so we went down to the locker room."

"Someone asked if I would meet Eva Longoria," says Parker. "I said, 'Who?' I didn't know who she was. I wasn't a TV guy."

"As a fan I knew who Tony was, but I didn't really know much about him," Longoria says. "That night I read in the program that he was French. I had just gotten back from Paris, so when we were introduced, I made a little small talk in French."

"That got my attention," he says. "I also thought she was very cute, of course. We talked in the locker room for a few minutes, and she said she was going to a party in town later that night, so I asked if she wanted to go to dinner beforehand. I said her dad could come, too, but I didn't mean it. Anyway, he didn't come, and Eva and I talked all night long."

"Then he went on the road for a week," she says. "When he came back to town, we had our first real date: breakfast at IHOP. It was so romantic."

The two refuse to let their hectic work schedules undermine their relationship. "We never go more than two weeks without seeing each other during the season, no matter what," he says. Housewives shoots 10 months a year but not necessarily five days a week, allowing Longoria opportunities to rendezvous with Parker in San Antonio or on Spurs roadtrips. Popovich encourages significant others to travel with the team, and Longoria mixes well, even though she gets more face time on TNT than Charles Barkley. "She's been welcomed into our family just like anyone else," says San Antonio guard Brent Barry. "She's very supportive of the whole team, and everybody here is really fond of her."

With Parker's intractable NBA commitment, "I'm always on his schedule," Longoria says. "Last year I didn't take a movie during the summer because I wanted to spend every minute I could with him." In July, when Parker was sequestered in Divonne-les-Bains, France, preparing for the world championships with the French national team, Longoria flew in from L.A. for a visit that lasted less than 24 hours. "He had a day off, and I missed him," she says. "We had dinner, and I left the next day."

"Yes, but it was worth it, no?" Parker says suggestively, suddenly sounding a bit like Pepé Le Pew.


Parker planned to pop the question in Paris last October, when the Spurs opened training camp there. But just before the team left Texas, rumors flew that the couple had split. Longoria's publicist issued a statement on Sept. 29 saying that they were going through "a very difficult time," but it did not directly address the rumors. In the end Longoria made the trip to Paris, and though the couple renewed their commitment to each other, Parker did not propose.

A month later he sneaked off to L.A. following a game in Utah. When Longoria returned home after a long day on the set, her place was littered with rose petals and alighted with candles. Parker did the whole one-knee thing, the exclamation point being a five-carat engagement ring. Now the wedding plans are in high gear, with the superstitious Parker having picked 7/7/07 as the date. The ceremony, which will be held in a castle outside of Paris, is the subject of breathless reports in glossy magazines, and Longoria allows that "there is tremendous pressure to find the most gorgeous dress of the century." But Parker is sanguine amid the mounting frenzy. "She does everything," he says. "I am in charge of the food and the music, and that's it."

On top of wedding preparations they are also building a house together in San Antonio. Parker had already started planning his dream bachelor pad before he met Longoria, and now, he says, "we're having a blast collaborating on the design." Framing has already begun on their private playground, a 23-acre spread that will have an indoor basketball court, beach-volleyball and tennis courts, and a mini water park around a large pool. A special room has been set aside for their puppies -- a bulldog and two St. Bernards (one of whom is named Booba, the same handle as Parker's favorite French rapper).

About the only goody the house is missing is a recording studio to nurse Parker's musical ambitions. In 2006 he released the single Top of the Game, one of the more unusual entries in the hip-hop pantheon. On the track respected Brooklyn rapper Fabolous rhymes about Saint-Tropez and French kisses, while Parker flows exclusively in French. At last year's All-Star Game, in Houston, Parker and Fabolous performed the song at a club, the displaced Frenchman displaying an impressive command of b-boy mannerisms. (Grainy evidence of the gig is available on YouTube.) Later this month Parker's debut album, Balance-Toi (Bounce), will be released in France. The title cut, a club banger with a propulsive beat and a racy video featuring tarted-up cheerleaders and Longoria in a cameo, has reached No. 2 on France's new-music charts. (Snippets are available at tpmusic.skyblog.com.) "This is for real," Parker says of his burgeoning rap career. "I'm already working on my second album."

Boris Diaw, the French forward of the Phoenix Suns, confirms that his boyhood friend's interest is genuine. "This has nothing to do with trying to keep up with Eva," Diaw says. "Tony has talked about doing an album as long as I've known him." But then, it's easy to attribute any change in Parker to Longoria -- much to the fear of Spurs supporters. In the way that hockey fans in Edmonton still blame Janet Jones's acting ambitions for the trade that sent Wayne Gretzky to Hollywood, San Antonians fear that Longoria will whisk Parker out of town. In fact, Longoria loves the paparazzi-free serenity of San Antonio, and almost all of her family has moved to the area in recent years.

It is Parker who frets about the future. Both he and Longoria are committed to their current employers through 2011, he on a six-year, $66 million extension signed in '04, she on a seven-year contract from '04 that currently pays her in the low six figures per episode. "We need to live full time in the same city," says Parker, "so naturally my decision [about where to sign when his contract expires] is going to be affected by Eva and her career."

Ever mindful of the power of headlines, Longoria leans in and whispers, "Are you sure you want to say that? You don't want Pop to get mad."


Parker has reason not to antagonize his curmudgeonly coach, because in his sixth season he has finally earned Popovich's trust. Though Parker became a starter just five games into his rookie year, during the 2003 playoffs talk was rampant that the Spurs were going to replace him with free agent Jason Kidd. (The pining for Kidd stopped long ago.) "He's becoming a coach on the floor," Popovich now says of Parker. "There are times when I stand up to make a call and he shakes me off. When that happens, I just turn around and go back to the bench. I want him to have that kind of confidence."

Last season was crucial to Parker's development. At the start of the year he began working with a shooting coach to refine his mechanics, and combining a more consistent jumper with his fearless slashes to the basket and teardrop finishes made him almost impossible to stop. With Duncan and ace swingman Manu Ginóbili slowed most of the season by injuries, Parker led the Spurs to a franchise-record 63 victories, averaging a career-high 18.9 points and 5.8 assists while shooting 54.8% from the field, a ludicrous number for a guard.

San Antonio succumbed to the Dallas Mavericks in a bruising seven-game series in the conference semifinals, but with Duncan and Ginóbili back to full strength this season, the Spurs are looking like the balanced, defense-minded powerhouse that won championships in 2003 and '05. Though he has been slowed recently by a strained hip flexor and chronic tendinitis in his right knee, Parker was still ringing up 18.4 points (on 51.9% shooting) and 5.5 assists per game at week's end, making him the only player beside the reigning two-time MVP, Steve Nash of Phoenix, to average at least 15 and five while hitting better than 50%.

Says Nash, "I respect how he's been able to adapt his role so seamlessly. Last year he was their first option, and a lot of nights he carried that team. This year he's still just as dangerous, but he does a great job getting his [points] in the framework of what the team is trying to do."

As Parker looks ahead to the summer, he can't help but think that a third championship ring would go nicely with a wedding band. Throw in a hit record and a dream house, and life couldn't be sweeter. "I have ups and downs, like anybody else," Parker says. "There are times when I'm arguing with Eva, and in basketball Pop is on my case. But I never complain, because I know I'm very, very blessed."

Just to underscore the point, Eva leans in and plants a juicy kiss on him.