Prep Basketball Playoffs : 3-A Semifinals : Tustin’s Parker Has Learned to Appreciate the Game

Leo Parker’s life didn’t always center on basketball. There were times, in fact, that Parker, a senior at Tustin High School, thought it a ridiculous waste of time.

“My Dad used to play,” Parker said. “I thought he was crazy. And he’d always watch the Lakers on TV. I hated that. I wanted to watch ‘Three’s Company.’ ”

That was six years ago. Since then, Parker’s tastes--and priorities--have changed dramatically, helping to turn Tustin into one of Orange County’s top basketball programs.

Tonight at 7:30, the third-seeded Tillers (23-5) meet Palos Verdes (18-8) in a Southern Section 3-A semifinal game at Redondo High School. The winner will advance to Saturday’s 3-A final against the winner of Tuesday night’s Kennedy-Rolling Hills game.

Parker, a 6-foot 6-inch, 178-pound center, averages 20.1 points and 8.5 rebounds a game. His favorite shot--a turnaround jumper from 8 to 10 feet--is made more impressive by the fact that he mastered it in a matter of weeks, according to Tustin Coach Tom McCluskey.

In addition, Parker is quick, is strong for his size and jumps as well or better as anyone.

But according to those who know him best, these attributes pale in comparison to the one thing that has made Parker truly exceptional.

“It’s his love and enthusiasm for the game,” McCluskey said. “That’s his best attribute.”

What? This of a lad who at one time preferred sitcoms to Show Time?

“Leo really derives a pleasure from the game that you don’t see with a lot of the better players,” McCluskey said. “He has a dynamic personality that spreads to the team. It’s made a difference.”

Not that it all came at once. Parker didn’t begin playing organized basketball until his sophomore year. Until this season, two powers had overshadowed his efforts.

One was Rog Middleton, who as a senior and Times All-County selection last year, led the county in field-goal percentage (69.9%) and was fourth-highest in scoring average (22.3 points).

The other was Parker himself. Or at least his excitable nature. The one that seemed to get him in trouble at every turn.

Note the following vignettes of his sophomore season:

In Tustin’s first league game, against Santa Ana Valley, the Tillers opened with an 8-0 run. Santa Ana Valley called a timeout. Parker took the ball and slammed it to the floor with all his strength.

“I was just all excited,” Parker said. “But the crowd started yelling, ‘Give him a T! Give him a T!’ I didn’t know I did anything wrong.”

At the Laguna Beach tournament, Parker was called for a foul. He argued about it and received a technical.

“I told him, ‘You’re crazy , ref!’ But he didn’t listen,” Parker said. “I guess I realized I needed to calm down.”

Many say that Parker’s excitability was natural for one just beginning in organized ball. As a child, he and his friends played back-yard football and baseball--”O.J. Simpson and Marcus Allen, the Yankees and the Dodgers, they were what I was into,” he said--but he didn’t involve himself with basketball until the seventh grade.

“In the early days, we spent a lot of time watching TV,” said B. LeSean London, a longtime friend of Parker’s and the Tillers’ starting point guard.

“But somehow we got started playing pickup games, and Leo fell in love with it. . . . The only problem was, Leo always tried to emulate the pros. He wanted to be Magic Johnson.”

Parker quickly became a neighborhood celebrity.

“Leo was what you might call a playground legend,” said Rich Prospero, who was an assistant coach at Tustin from 1983-87 before accepting an assistant position with Chapman College last fall.

“I hadn’t seen Leo play, but I had heard a lot about him,” Prospero said. “So I went to take a look. He was about 6-4, and he was playing point guard. I remember watching him dribbling behind his back, between his legs, making these incredible no-look passes . . . And he could dunk .

“I saw it with my own eyes and I still couldn’t believe it. We had varsity players at Tustin who couldn’t do what he was doing.”

Parker didn’t play his freshman year. He told Prospero and then-head coach Tim O’Brien that his religious beliefs--Parker is a Jehovah’s Witness--do not encourage competition in after-school sports. But he continually watched the Tillers at work.

“Leo was always hanging around our sixth-period PE class,” said O’Brien, now the head basketball coach at Estancia. “I had to keep taking him back to his sixth-period class. Finally, I got him an admit slip so he could transfer in. He did, but he said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to play on the team.”

When the season started two months later, Parker joined the team. He was an instant starter, and averaged 7.5 points a game as a sophomore. But his start was a little rough for both player and coaches.

“(His game) was all street,” O’Brien said. “It was pick up the ball, jam it in the hoop and let’s do it again. But you could tell he had that character, those intangibles that make great players.

Said London: “He always had those images, like of Magic Johnson, in his mind. He thought that’s the way you had to play to be something. At first, he had no discipline in the game. But after three years, Leo’s really grown in the sport.”

Parker agrees.

“I guess a lot of it was growing up,” he said. “Accepting the rules. It’s funny. I look at the pros a lot, and some people say they shouldn’t have to be role models ‘cause they’re just people or whatever. But personally, I’d hate to see Magic hit someone. If you’re good, you ought to be setting an example.”