Jabari Parker: NBA is 'watered down,' less legitimate than EuroLeague

Former No. 2 overall pick Jabari Parker is turning heads aftertaking some shots at the NBA.

The former phenom recently signed a one-year contract with FCBarcelona and when asked why he decided to join the EuroLeaguerather than continue his NBA career, he didn't mince words.

"I just want to be a part of something legitimate. I want to bea part of [a league where] ‘every game matters.' Sadly, the NBA isa business and there are 10-12 teams that try to win every game andthe other half try to get a draft pick," Parker told EuroHoops. "Where does thatleave good players? You either have to be super good or bad to losegames. It’s no excuse to see DeMarcus Cousins, Dwight Howard orJohn Wall, guys who are potentially going into the Hall of Fame…not have a job.

"We are seeing the league getting watered down, unfortunately.It’s a lot of things that are out of our control. EuroLeague andthe fans are expecting a lot, and we as players expect a lot fromourselves and we want to compete."

Parker didn't stop there. He also argued that EuroLeague rostersmight be better than NBA rosters from top to bottom since there aremore veterans.

"Euroleague might have, arguably, some of the better playersconsistently on a team," Parker said. "In the NBA, you have alot of counterparts that don’t really contribute to a talent, maybe[it's] political, maybe a favor, whatever. Out here, you have toplay; you have to be able to be good, you have to have someexperience and you see it with teams like us: [Alex] Abrines playedwith OKC, Jan [Vesely] played in the Wizards, Sato (TomasSatoransky)…

"This is not like baseball where you have veterans that stay ona team; there is no minor league. Where is the room for experiencedguys and veterans [on NBA rosters]? That arguably says that you dohave some better talent [in the EuroLeague], just from theexperience. If you have a roster full of guys that have been profor 10-plus years, how are rookies or two-year guys exceeding them?You see that around Europe, with many other teams, not onlyourselves. Real Madrid has some really good guys on their teamtoo."

Parker's last NBA stint came to an end in January of 2022, whenhe was waived by the Boston Celtics. Rather than continuing to waiton an NBA call, Parker decided to sign abroad instead.

"I knew I wanted to play this season and I didn’t want to wait,"Parker explained. "I didn’t want tohave to go through the extenuating process of trying to figure outan NBA team that was going to take a chance on me.

"As soon as we had the conversations with [FC Barcelonadirector] Mario Bruno Fernández, I got down here. They pretty muchgave me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. I decided this was thebest place for me."

Parker has suited up for six NBA teams: the Milwaukee Bucks,Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kingsand Celtics.

Throughout his eight-year NBA career, the 28-year-old averaged14.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 0.9 steals whileshooting 49.4% from the field, 32.6% from three-point range and74.3% from the free-throw line.