On January 19, 2022, Parsons announced his official retirement on social media, in fact, after suffering a car accident two years ago, his career was completely over. The 2011 second-round show, who played nine seasons, 440 games, played for four teams and earned more than $120 million in salary, could have been an inspirational model for the NBA, but eventually became a "public enemy" of three cities. People may not remember his wonderful performances on the court, nor will they remember the lace news outside the court, but the story of the Mavericks and Grizzlies opening two top salary contracts for him may be passed on forever.
Parsons' college experience was not outstanding, and his University of Florida was not a traditional NCAA team, but they still beat famous schools such as UCLA and Brigham Young in "March Madness", only to lose to Butler University in the quarterfinals. After that, Parsons announced his participation in the draft.
At that time, the Rockets were in a stage of waste, the Yao Mai era had completely ended, the team was in a state of leaderlessness, Parsons, who was selected by the Rockets with the 38th pick in the second round, soon ushered in the opportunity after Badinger was injured, and he only took 6 games to sit firmly in the position of the team's starting small forward.
The three years with the Rockets were the best of Parsons' career, with a highlight in the series with the Trail Blazers, almost single-handedly dragging the series into the seventh. He staged a miracle of 30 points in the half in the game against the Grizzlies, and 34 points was the highest score point in his career.
Parsons of the Rocket Period
However, even the best memories are not as tempting as money, he called Cuban brother in a bar, and signed a 3-year salary of 46 million, and then he couldn't wait to change his personal homepage to a blue background, all of which Parsons did not say hello to the Rockets, and his behavior completely made him a public enemy of Houston.
At that time, the Mavericks were trained as Nowitzki's successor, and Dirk took the initiative to cut his salary sharply. But then the facts proved that Parsons was not the core material at all, he did not play the expected performance at all in the Mavericks, but there was no small contradiction with the team, and he also used his good relationship with Cuban to intervene in the team's reinforcements, volunteered to recruit Jordan Jr., but was eventually teased.
After two seasons in Dallas that were reimbursed in advance, he was anxious to find his next home, jumping out of the contract early despite Cuban's pleas. After joining the Grizzlies, he attacked Dallas fans, and when fans uploaded the video of the burning of Parsons jerseys to the Internet, Parsons chose to spray fans, and he once again became a public enemy of a city.
Parsons has no fear because he chose his next home early, in the summer training camp, Parsons and Conley established a deep friendship, and even let Conley force the Grizzlies to pay Parsons a maximum salary, in order to prevent Conley's departure, the Grizzlies can only desperately give Parsons a 4-year 94.8 million dollars maximum salary. And this signing made the Grizzlies completely fall into the abyss, until the selection of Morant ushered in hope.
After the Grizzlies signed Conley and Morant, they were unable to keep the team's meritorious Randolph, who left the Kings. Carter also left because of Parsons' arrival. Defensive striker Tony Allen was also upset that the Grizzlies had given him a base salary and eventually left the team.
Parsons, who received the top salary, could only wear a suit and sit on the sidelines to applaud his teammates, and in the three seasons of the Grizzlies, Parsons only played 85 games, and his contribution on the court was almost negligible. And the Grizzlies are also troubled by his lace news off the court.
But that's not all that angered Grizzlies fans, who were going to put him on the injury list towards the end of his contract, using deferred payment clauses to add his final year's salary to the future salary cap for three years, thus reducing the burden on the team. However, Parsons took the initiative to find the team to ask for the game, and contacted the players' union, so that the Grizzlies' plan was frustrated. After a fruitless buyout with Parsons, the Grizzlies traded him to the Hawks.
At the Hawks, Parsons finally had no capital to do it, he only played 5 games for the Hawks, and shortly after the car accident, the Hawks also cut Parsons. But it wasn't until 2022 that Parsons officially announced his retirement. Honestly, despite his bad reputation, Parsons is definitely a winner in life, but he should have performed better on the basketball court.