Larry Brown Sports

It’s starting to look like the days of shaving a team logo or a player’s name into your head are over with. The new haircut craze is straight up artwork. If you’re going to pay tribute to Tony Parker using your head, you might as well do it up big. Go portrait or go home. As you can see from the video above that Black Sports Online shared with us, a fan recently got a detailed portrait of Parker — which seems to imply that he should be the league’s MVP — shaved into his head by a barber who goes by the name Rob the Original.

This haircut is a bit more straightforward than the Picasso-looking one that young soccer fan got a few months back, but it’s just as impressive. Apparently haircuts are now like cars — they just don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Life as an NBA player requires adjusting on the fly — not only on the court, but off of it as well. One minute you could be playing in Charlotte and the next thing you know you’re halfway across the country in San Antonio. Just ask Boris Diaw, who was released by the Bobcats and signed by the Spurs last Friday. Having played four games in five days since joining the team, Diaw hasn’t had any time to look for a place. Fortunately, he has been able to bunk up with his good buddy Tony Parker.

“I’m sleeping on Tony’s couch for the moment. Like Jeremy Lin!” Diaw said with a laugh during an interview with RMC Sport. “We made a deal: I can sleep at his house but I have to pay for all of our meals.”

Depending on how much Tony eats, that seems like a pretty fair trade-off for now. The thing is, however, that Amar’e Stoudemire has labeled Diaw as one of the two smelliest players in the NBA, along with Ronny Turiaf. At least Lin was sleeping on his own brother’s couch and there are no rumors about him being a stinker. Hopefully for the sake of Parker’s furniture, Amar’e is wrong about Boris’ hygiene.

Photo credit: Soobum Im-US PRESSWIRE

Personally, I would never get over a split with Eva Longoria. That blow would just be too much for me to handle. I guess that’s why I’m not Tony Parker. Well, that and I suck at playing basketball — but this isn’t about that. According to the NY Post, the woman above is Parker’s new girlfriend. She is a French woman named Axelle, and the two were reportedly spotted shopping together on Thursday night with a source saying, “They shopped for about two hours together and looked very romantic.” Another source close to Parker told the Post, “They are an item.”

Parker was also seen attending a tennis tournament with Axelle back in November, so apparently this has been going on for a little while. If you remember, Parker and Longoria split up after Eva suspected Tony was involved with Brent Barry’s ex-wife. Parker suspected Longoria was involved with Lance Armstrong. He has since dated a French beauty queen and now Axelle, who meets the standard he has set as you can see. I wish I was a rich, French basketball player.

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Gregg Popovich is widely regarded as one of the best coaches in the NBA. Many people consider him to be the best. He’s also changed over the years, according to Tony Parker.

“As he gets older and drinks more wine, he gets more patient,” the Spurs point guard said.

“I always tell the rookies they’re lucky,” Parker said. “Because it’s nothing like when I was a rookie. He’s so nice to them.”

According to the San Antonio Express-News, Parker had been waiting for an eruption from Popovich all season but he hadn’t seen one until Wednesday night. The Spurs came out of halftime playing poorly against the Hawks, so Pop did a mass substitution, benching many players. The overhaul resulted in an easy 105-83 win.

San Antonio is 12-7 on the season, so whatever coaching method Pop’s been using seems to have been working. Maybe it’s the wine, maybe it’s not. If it is the alcoholic grape juice, I just hope it’s not any ******* Merlot.

Chest bump to Ball Don’t Lie, True Hoop

The French press says Spurs point guard Tony Parker has a new girlfriend, and it’s beauty queen Barbara Morel. The first reports about Parker’s new girl emerged three weeks ago, but I didn’t see it until Spurs Nation reported it (via IamaGM.com).

According to their information, Morel is a 20-year-old girl who won Miss Nationale in France. She is also a trade and commerce student in Saint-Lambesc, Bouches du Rhône. The youth of Morel should be a nice change from Parker’s previous wife, Eva Longoria.

If you recall, Parker and ex-wife Eva Longoria divorced in November. Eva was suspicious about Tony’s relationship with Brent Barry’s ex, and Tony was suspicious of Eva and Lance Armstrong.

Given that Tony’s play seemed to improve after he broke up with Longoria, we can only imagine what sort of wonders Morel can work on his game. Check out some pics of Morel to see what we mean.

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A few weeks ago, Tony Parker had a lapse in judgment.  The Spurs guard probably realizes now that it isn’t a good idea to write your team off as a championship contender, especially when you are going to be playing with that team until 2015.  Naturally, Parker backed off of the comments he made about the Spurs being finished, but Gregg Popovich was obviously rubbed the wrong way by what he said.

“You think I care what Tony Parker says?” Popovich told WOAI-TV via Spurs Nation. “You think Tony Parker is gonna coach when he quits? Why would I listen to Tony Parker.”

Pop was then reminded that Parker owns a basketball team in France, and he responded by piling it on his All-Star guard even further.

“He can own but he can’t coach,” Popovich continued. “Get your ass out there and play, Tony. Tie the score. But talk about basketball, I don’t need Tony for that.”

What is interesting about all this is that Parker made it a point to take back what he said and assure everyone he would not have signed a four-year extension with the Spurs if he thought they couldn’t contend.  Despite the backpedaling, Pop still had to show that the remarks annoyed him.  Popovich sounded more like a coach talking about an ex-player than someone on the current roster.  While this isn’t the first time there have been signs of the two not getting along, they have plenty of time left in the offseason before they have to get over it.

If there’s one thing we learned from the Spurs 94-91 victory over the Timberwolves on Sunday, it’s that Gregg Popovich doesn’t play favorites with his stars.  The Spurs may be the best team in the NBA with a 31-6 record, and Tony Parker may be averaging 17.5 points and 6.8 assists per game, but that didn’t stop Pop from benching him on Sunday for what he considered to be a lack of effort on defense.

In the fourth quarter, Parker stood to the side and watched Minnesota guard Luke Ridnour drive by him and dish the ball to Kevin Love for a dunk before Popovich yanked him from the game and gave him an earful.  The Spurs guard watched the remainder of the game from the bench.

It should be noted that Parker missed Friday night’s game against Indiana because of a stomach ailment, but he assured Popovich he was good to go on Sunday.  Whether the stomach issue came into play or not, ready to go is ready to go.  When Parker said he could play that meant he could play without restriction.  That included playing defense.

It’s been a bit of a rough first half of the season for Parker, who first went through a divorce and was now summoned to the bench for not trying.  While Tony’s numbers may have suffered slightly, the Spurs have improved since the Parker-Longoria split and are playing some of their best basketball in years.

Photo Credit: Spurs Nation