Lakers: Former LA Guard To Pursue Career as NBA Referee
It looks like Smush Parker's got a new job.
The longtime NBA guard is probably best remembered (certainly in these parts) for his time spent starting in the backcourt next to Kobe Bryant for your Los Angeles Lakers, during the wilderness years in between Bryant's two dynastic eras.
Per Bleacher Report, Parker is now working as a referee, and hoping to one day do so for the league.
Aftering going undrafted out of Fordham University in 2002, the 6'4" combo guard started out with the Cleveland Cavaliers a year before current Laker LeBron James was drafted by the club. Parker was healthy for all 164 regular season games during his LA tenure, where he averaged 11.3 points, 3.4 assists, and 1.6 steals a night.
He played overseas from 2003-2004, before returning to the NBA to play for the Detroit Pistons, the season after they won the title against the Lakers. His stint with LA ran from 2005-2007. He also played for the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers.
When his NBA opportunities dried up in 2008, Parker went international for good, and played China, Russia, Greece, Iran, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Croatia and more.
During a very memorable appearance with Dan Le Batard while LeBatard was still with ESPN (he has since gone on to found his own media company, Meadowlark Media, with former ESPN head honcho John Skipper serving as the new venture's CEO), Parker revealed that he and Bryant barely spoke during their shared LA tenure:
"He told me one day at practice — I tried to talk to him outside of basketball about football," Parker told Le Batard. "And he looked at me in practice and was dead serious and said, 'You can’t talk to me. You need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me.'"
Bryant may have been a ruthless asocial psychopath, but he did lead the Lakers to five titles, so fans haven't seemed to mind.
