Bobby Ray Parks Sr. (November 26, 1961 – March 30, 2013) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player from Grand Junction, Tennessee. He played for Memphis State University (now the

University of Memphis The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

) from 1980 to 1984 and played internationally in the Philippines, Indonesia and France. As one of the most celebrated "import" players in the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines, composed of twelve company-branded Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...

(PBA), Parks became the second American ever inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 2009.

College career

Bobby Parks came to Memphis State University in the fall of 1980 under head coach Dana Kirk. Over the next four seasons he helped the Tigers to an 86–34 record, two Metro Conference Championships and three appearances in the NCAA Tournament. He appeared in 27 games as a freshman and totaled 238 points. During his second season with the Tigers, 1981–82, Parks upped his scoring average to 11.4 points per game in leading the team to a 24–5 record. As a junior, Parks received All-America honors from '' The Sporting News'' after scoring 488 points and helping his team to an NCAA Midwest Region invitation. He capped his Memphis career by again averaging in double figures in scoring and finished his senior season with a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Parks is now ranked 15th in his alma mater's career scoring with 1,266 points. M Club Hall Of Fame To Add New Stars In 2004 :: Basketball star Bobby Parks leads new group of honored Memphis athletes
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Professional career

Continental Basketball Association

Parks was chosen in the third round by the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Easte ...

in the 1984 NBA draft, the 58th player of 228 chosen in the draft. Wearing his trademark no. 22, Parks played for the Hawks in the NBA pre-season but was cut before the regular campaign started. He also played parts of four seasons in the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA), originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association, was a men's professional basketball m ...

, appearing in 83 games for the Pensacola Tornados, Mississippi Jets, Rockford Lightning and Rochester Renegade between 1985 and 1994.1994-95 Official CBA Guide and Register, pages 327-8 He was selected to the CBA All-Defensive Second Team in 1986.

Philippines

Parks began a career overseas in France in 1986 and in 1987, then played in the Philippines where he would become a legend. He made his PBA debut with San Miguel Beer in 1987. He saw action the following year for Formula Shell until 1999. He finished his 12-year PBA career with nearly 9,000 points, over 3,000 rebounds and more than 1,000 assists in 220 games. In 1989 alone, he averaged 52.6 points in 23 games with a high of 72. Parks won a PBA record of seven Best Import awards and led his teams (San Miguel and Shell) to three PBA championships. While in the Philippines, Parks also appeared in several Filipino movies.

Indonesia

After his PBA stint, Parks went to Indonesia to play for Aspac Jakarta in the Kobatama (Kompetisi Bola Basket Utama) competition. Parks, called by Indonesian fans as 'The Ice Man' or 'Uncle Bob,' suited up as import for the Indonesian club teams in the Seaba tournament and Asian Basketball Confederation (now FIBA-Asia) Champions Cup. Parks involved in bringing Aspac to final since 1994 and dedicated two titles in 1995 and 1996. Parks sweetly closed his stint in Indonesia in 1997, when Aspac defeated Indonesia Muda with 112–99. Parks made 12 3-point shots to break the previous record set by Pelita Jaya's Aprijadi who made 10. Parks dominated the Indonesian league especially since local basketball players in this country at that time are not that talented at all.

Coaching record

PBA

Retirement

He returned to Memphis in 2005, partly to finish his degree under the invitation of coach John Calipari and the athletic department. Another motivation for the move was to bring his son Bobby Jr. (also known as "Ray Ray"), a promising teenage player, to Memphis to expose him to better basketball competition. Parks also served as the personal assistant to John Paul "Jack" Jones, a wealthy

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

alumnus from Memphis who is the namesake for UVA's current basketball arena. On June 2, 2010, Parks and his family moved back to the Philippines. Parks accepted a position as athletics director at

National University A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state. In the United States, the term "national university" connotes the highe ...

in Manila. During that time, he was in the middle of a battle with laryngeal cancer; his treatment was reported to be successful in April 2011. In November 2010, Bobby Jr. signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Georgia Tech, but then disappeared from the view of both Tech and the American media for several months. Eventually, Luke Winn of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' tracked the younger Parks down, discovering in April 2011 that Bobby Jr. had enrolled at NU and was expected to lead the Bulldogs in the upcoming UAAP

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. In 2011, the San Miguel Beermen (ABL) joined the ASEAN Basketball League and named Parks its first head coach. He led the team to a finals appearance, losing to the Indonesia Warriors.

Death

On March 30, 2013 (Black Saturday), Parks died after a long battle with lung cancer, which developed from his previously untreated laryngeal cancer.

Legacy

To commemorate Parks' legacy, the PBA renamed the prestigious "PBA Best Import of the Conference Award" to the " Bobby Parks PBA Best Import of the Conference Award". The award was renamed on March 31, 2013, a day after Parks' death, as it coincided with the scheduled awarding during the 2013 PBA Commissioner's Cup. The first recipient of the renamed award was Robert Dozier of the Alaska Aces—coincidentally, also a former Memphis player. Parks became the second American and the first import ever inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame on October 9, 2009. Parks was inducted into the University of Memphis' M Club Hall of Fame on September 10, 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Bobby 1961 births 2013 deaths American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in the Philippines Atlanta Hawks draft picks ASEAN Basketball League coaches Basketball players from Tennessee Deaths from lung cancer in the Philippines Deaths from laryngeal cancer Memphis Tigers men's basketball players Mississippi Jets players Pensacola Tornados (1985–86) players People from Grand Junction, Tennessee Sportspeople from the Memphis metropolitan area Philippine Basketball Association All-Stars Philippine Basketball Association imports Rochester Renegade players Rockford Lightning players San Miguel Beermen players Shell Turbo Chargers players American men's basketball players Guards (basketball) United States Basketball League players Stapac Jakarta players 20th-century American sportsmen