The Legacy of the Jabari Parker Draft 10 Years Later
Nearly 10 years after he was selected second overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, Jabari Parker's legacy with the Milwaukee Bucks is worth re-examining.
10 years ago, the Milwaukee Bucks tanked their way to the second overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft by accident.
They didn’t plan to win a mere 15 games for the 2013-14 season. They just fell into it by doing what they had done the previous seasons. Under the watchful eye of then-owner Herb Kohl, the Bucks built their way through the middle.
The Bucks saw value in playoff runs, even if that meant being the eighth seed, and being walloped by the ‘Big 3’ era of the Miami Heat in the first round. Free agency moves were rife with short-sightedness, and they took their shots in the late lottery of the draft. Aiming for the middle, and tepid success ironically brought the Bucks to the dregs of the NBA as they epitomized that dreaded small market mentality that every NBA team in non-glamour markets fear.
Change was coming, though, to a Bucks franchise that could no longer operate that way. Kohl sold the Bucks to a pair of New York businessmen — Wes Edens and Marc Lasry — at the end of the 13-14 season. The NBA had called for the Bucks to build a new arena to replace the Bradley Center, which then-incoming commissioner — Adam Silver — had deemed unfit for the league. Everything surrounding the Bucks’ future in Milwaukee was called into question.
Even by accident, there was never a better time for the Bucks to be near the top of the draft. The franchise, and their fans, needed hope. Most of all, they needed a sure thing.
Enter Jabari Parker.
The son of Sonny, a seven-year NBA veteran, and Lola, Jabari found his way to the game of basketball while growing up on the south side of Chicago, and was destined to be an NBA star. It wasn’t long until he started playing against kids older than him after surpassing the kids his own age. He was so good at basketball that he picked where he was going to play in high school, and decided on the legendary Simeon Academy.
Playing for a school that had a rich basketball pedigree, Parker was the first freshman to start on the varsity team in the school’s history. Simeon won the state championship in each of Parker’s four seasons there. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the age of 17. They labeled him the best high school prospect since LeBron James. He had the choice to play anywhere he wanted to, and he committed to Duke before the start of his senior season.
The one-and-done rule was made for can’t miss prospects like Parker. He’d put in his tour of duty for one of the blue blood schools, and knew that every NBA scout would be watching every one of his games. He showed off that smooth one-on-one scoring, and bouncy athleticism that made him a future face of a franchise. He became the first freshman in Duke’s history to lead his team in scoring (19.1 points per game), and rebounding (8.7 rebounds per game). Being upset by 14th-seed Mercer in the first round of the NCAA Tournament did little to dampen Parker’s soaring draft stock.
When the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Andrew Wiggins first overall in the draft held on June 26, 2014, it erased any question as to who the Bucks would take.
Parker wanted to be in Milwaukee, and the Bucks wanted Parker. He talked of being a ‘throwback player,’ one that would stay with one team for the entirety of his career. He mentioned the franchise greats that he hoped to be in their company one day. This is the player, and more importantly, the person that the Bucks wanted all along.
What Parker hoped for upon coming to Milwaukee, and what the Bucks hoped they had with Parker did not go to plan. A pair of ACL tears suffered in the same knee over the span of 26 months diminished any chance of Parker realizing his full potential — not just in a Bucks uniform, but in the NBA at large.
In each season that Parker succumbed to his ACL tears, the Bucks made the playoffs that essentially gave the platform for the rising talents of Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Khris Middleton. The two combined forces, showing that they’d be the faces of a Bucks team that eventually ascended to being a power in the NBA, and eventually end its half-century championship drought in 2021.
The Bucks’ rise into relevancy occurred without Parker in Milwaukee. His return from his second ACL tear led to gripes over how his role within the rotation was handled, as well as his minutes during the Bucks’ first round series against the Boston Celtics under interim head coach Joe Prunty in 2018. The tension was palpable as Parker headed into restricted free agency that summer.
Despite the hype, the fanfare, and lofty expectations that largely went unfulfilled, the Bucks moved on from Parker. Instead, he went home to play for his hometown Chicago Bulls, and the Bucks were more than willing to facilitate an easy exit from the franchise by pulling his qualifying offer not long into free agency.
The same summer saw the Bucks bring in two major catalysts that jump started the team towards contention. The arrival of Mike Budenholzer, a highly successful coach who came up within the model NBA organization of the 21st century, the San Antonio Spurs, and Brook Lopez, a seven-foot center who started shooting threes that became the bedrock of a top of the league-level defense.
The road towards a championship came in sight, and Parker was left in the rear view.
In the years since leaving Milwaukee, Parker bounced around with five NBA teams in the span of four seasons. He went from being assured financial security all throughout his career to hanging on in the league by signing non-guaranteed contracts by the end of his eight NBA seasons.
After taking a year off, Parker has since resurfaced playing overseas with Barcelona this year, and regaining the joy of basketball has come with it. Despite a heartbreaking 95-92 loss to Real Madrid in the Liga Endessa Semifinals over the weekend, Parker was so overwhelmed by emotion about what it has meant for him to stick at Barcelona when asked by a reporter.
He was once the great hope of a Bucks franchise that virtually had none by the time he arrived. Since his departure nearly five years ago, that hope was satisfied in the form of a championship, seeing an MVP-caliber player transform before our eyes, and a wealth of other experiences we didn’t feel was possible for a woebegone Bucks franchise ten years ago. Every dream that Bucks fans had felt could be possible with getting a blue-chip prospect like Parker still became a reality.
Parker’s own NBA journey, and his potential that went unfulfilled has now become a footnote as the Bucks have enjoyed a franchise-altering transformation. Once he moved on from the franchise that he wanted to call home for his entire career in the back halls of the Barclays Center on draft night 10 years ago, Parker never found the NBA home that he needed to find himself again.
In today’s sports media landscape, it’s easy to label Parker’s NBA career as a bust. The hype machine he helped create because of the talents that he showed at a young age creates expectations of stardom, longevity, and greatness. He’s not the first — and he won’t be the last one to have fallen victim to mitigating circumstances that dashed a career that was destined for basketball stardom.
The measure of Parker’s true impact can still be felt in Milwaukee, though.
Where being a fan of the Bucks felt like having a black cloud hanging over you, Parker’s presence immediately helped resuscitate a franchise with very little going for itself. He was a symbol of hope, the reward after sinking to the bottom after years of treading mediocrity, and irrelevancy. There was a reason why being ‘Sorry for Jabari’ was the slogan of all Bucks fans this time 10 years ago.
Now, those three words have taken on a different meaning. Parker was not the one to bring the Bucks to the promised land, but the franchise was at the start of finding its way again when they drafted him a decade ago. When all is said and done, hopefully the same can be said for Parker finding his way again after seeing his star-crossed basketball journey take him to hell and back.