working as a shuttle driver for a private company. I was hired for the entire day to drive Tony around town to various doctor appointments at private clinics to have a very secret injury evaluated. I had no idea who this little Frenchmen was, and I would have never believed he would be the Tony Parker he was destined to be. I recall saying something to the effect of "are you going to challenge Avery Johnson at PG?" and Parker just grinned. Clearly he knew I had no idea who I was driving around.

Anyway, Parker was the kindest NBA player I ever shuttled, and I shuttled many players those years as we were contracted by the Monaco hotel.

Every stop at his appointments, he'd be in there for about an hour, and I kid you not, every 20 minutes he'd walk out and bring me out a water or soda or some snack from a machine and hand it to me and thank me for my patience and ask if I needed anything. It was ridiculous how kind he was.

I've always cheered for Parker since then. He showed unprecedented kindness when none was expected.

They never would tell me what the injury was but it looked like a knee.