Famous actress Eva Longoria (left) and NBA legend Tony Parker (right)
Canal+ (DR) / SKWEEK (DR)

Known above all for his exploits on the NBA courts and in the French team, Tony Parker has also seen his popularity rise with the general public thanks to his love affair with Eva Longoria. A tumultuous period that he has retraced in detail.

Basketball and NBA fans will first and foremost list his countless accomplishments in the league.

Those in the tabloid press will prefer to pour out their hearts on his eventful love life.

In any case, it’s difficult not to mix the two subjects when discussing Tony Parker’s career.

After all, it was his success in the league that led to his most famous romance with Eva Longoria.

Tony Parker Honest About His Relationship With Eva Longoria

Married from 2007 to 2010, Parker and Longoria met in November 2004, following a San Antonio game.

It didn’t take long for them to become friends and start their relationship. Just as it didn’t take long for it to make headlines and be scrutinized by the paparazzi.

A phenomenon that the French point guard agreed to talk about in the podcast Canapé Six Places :

Tony Parker: When all this came out, at the time, Eva and I were both at the top of our careers.

It was a bombshell and it was hard to deal with mentally because you find it so unfair to have to deal with something private like that in front of the whole world.

I was young. When I met Eva, I was 22 and she was 29. I got married at 25, so I was still learning about life.

It’s true that it wasn’t easy to manage because she was a girl I loved very much. It really wasn’t easy.

Beyond the surveillance he was subjected to during this period, the French legend could not even count on his meetings with the Spurs to clear his mind.

The public of the halls he went to made sure to prevent him from doing so:

Tony Parker: When you get on the court and you’re playing away, everybody’s going to tease you about that. You have to be really mentally tough to get through those moments. I was like, “I’m not going to let this define who I am as a person. I’m going to focus on basketball and beat everybody up.”

A method that has worked rather well for him.

Indeed, during the six seasons he played while still a couple with Longoria, TP9 averaged 18.5 points and 6.0 assists per game. Better yet, he was selected to the All-Star Game three times and won two championship rings, including one as Finals MVP. So it seems that the attempts to destabilize opposing fans did not have the desired effect.

Despite himself, Tony Parker discovered that the love life of a celebrity like him has its share of harmful sides. Fortunately, his mental strength kept him from collapsing and allowed him to remain formidable on the NBA courts.