Parks Puts Stock in His Future : Basketball: Former Marina star, who had a roller-coaster career at Duke, looks forward to NBA draft.

Cherokee Parks’ whirlwind honeymoon/hoop tour landed in New York last week. Finally, all he has to do is wait.

Wednesday will be the first day of the rest of his life.

For the last two weeks, Parks has put many miles and many memories of Duke--good and bad--behind him. He has hobnobbed with NBA officials from Miami to Vancouver, Portland to Washington.

All wanted a tete-a-tete with the guy they might tab to make an instant millionaire. Wednesday, when the NBA holds its draft in Toronto, Parks, a former Marina star, will wait in New York with his wife and agent for word on who’s paying.

If predictions hold, the call could come from the Washington Bullets, who pick fourth, to the Sacramento Kings, who pick 12th. But the hot money, today at least, is on Miami at No. 10.

“I keep hearing Miami too,” Parks said. “But I’m not going to get too excited about anything until it happens. I feel pretty good up until this point. I handled the interviews as well as possible.”

This guy has learned how to handle things well. Four years at Duke taught him that, from his first as Christian Laettner’s whipping boy to his last as some people’s scapegoat. For better or worse, it was an experience.

All that is logged into memory banks. Wednesday, life begins anew. “I’ll remember it all, definitely,” Parks said. “You always remember the good. The bad is kind of hard to forget.”

His four years at Duke definitely ended on the upbeat side. Parks married Duke graduate student Anne Marie Francis this month in the Duke Chapel.

Parks has even put into perspective his senior season, during which Duke went from dynasty to disaster. His feelings ranged from frustration to bitterness. He now calls the whole ride “an adjustment.”

As a consolation prize, Parks’ talent hit new heights, even if the Blue Devils did a tailspin into mediocrity, going from the national title game to 13-18 in one season. At least the people doing the picking Wednesday saw it that way.

His game, as a whole, became something NBA scouts warmed to. He improved as a shooter, showed he can handle the ball and displayed some aggressiveness inside.

All that comes with a 6-foot-10 1/4 frame that has NBA folk making some comparisons.

“He reminds me of Jack Sikma,” said Detroit Pistons’ Coach Doug Collins, whose son, Chris, plays at Duke. “Jack was a skinny kid coming out of college too.

“Cherokee is going to get stronger. He’s already a terrific shooter and he runs the floor well. He’s played at a program where there was a lot of pressure. I’ve seen him mature as a player and person.”

The Pistons pick eighth.

“Oh, I don’t think he’ll be there at eight,” Collins said.

Even Jerry West, the Lakers’ close-to-the-vest general manager, admires some of Parks’ skills.

“He’s very versatile,” West said. “He’s a big guy who can go outside and shoot.”

There are holes in Parks’ game, and he knows it. They were exploited last summer when he participated in the L.A. summer pro league as a member of the Goodwill Games team.

NBA power forwards tend to be heftier than Parks’ listed weight of 240 pounds. This has been brought up more than once during his recent tour.

“Just in the interviews, I’ve learned I have to relearn the game,” Parks said. “They impressed on me just how physical it is in the NBA. Every night, you’ll be guarded by someone who’s awesome. I have to get in the weight room.”

But when you get right down to it, these quibbles are only nit-picking. Strength can be acquired. Other things have to be inbred.

“The thing is he’s a guy that can be very effective as a power forward or even a center,” Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor said. “There are just a lot of things to like about Cherokee.”

Such praise was more reserved a year ago. That was before Parks dusted off his outside shooting touch. He had attempted only 17 three-pointers in his first three seasons at Duke, then made 31 of 85 (37%) as a senior.

“It was never necessary for me to step outside before,” Parks said. “But when I was afforded the opportunity, I did and I improved a lot. Hopefully, it will be a big part of my game from now on.”

This lower-those-expectations approach was a tough lesson to learn. Parks knew nothing but success through three seasons at Duke, then experienced the other end of the spectrum.

He was on a national championship team as a freshman, even if it meant enduring Laettner’s task-master style. As a junior, Parks helped the Blue Devils reach the title game, which they lost to Arkansas.

Nothing prepared him for last season’s fall from grace.

Duke was ranked as high as seventh, then lost six consecutive games and nine consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference games. Injuries were partly responsible for the collapse, the most devastating was losing Coach Mike Krzyzewski because of a back injury.

Parks remained healthy and played well. He averaged 19 points and nine rebounds. Still, some questioned his leadership abilities. Those comments didn’t sit well and it was hard for him to hold back the anger.

At one point during the season Parks told a friend he could have all his Duke “stuff” when the season was over.

“What made it tough was the number of close games we lost,” Parks said. “We lost twice to Maryland by one. We lost to Georgia Tech by one. We lost in overtime to Virginia and North Carolina. The list goes on. With a little more control, we could have won the ACC. It was tough.”

Yet, he managed to maintain some of his happy-go-lucky approach. This was, after all, a guy who in high school dug up a “Hoosiers” reference by hollering “Hickory!” into an empty Los Angeles Sports Arena before the Southern Section Division I championship game. That part of him refused to change.

When Parks bought a big-screen television last year, he told a former coach he hoped to pay it off in two or three years. The coach told a surprised Parks that it could probably be paid off a lot sooner, like this summer after the draft.

Even during games, Parks found some lighter moments. A UCLA fan, remembering that Parks had shunned the Bruins to go east, yelled: “Hey Cherokee, four years ago you decided to go to Duke instead of here. Thannnnk yoouuuuuu.”

Parks responded with a grin. What else could he do?

“We had setbacks this year, but, overall, Duke was great,” Parks said. “I got a degree [in history]. I won a national championship. I got to another championship game. And I met my wife.”

Parks and Francis were friends who began dating two years ago. They were married June 4, then hit the road, hopping from one NBA city to the next.

Francis will return to Duke to work on a master’s degree in accounting, a skill that could come in handy after Wednesday.

At that point, they will know in which city their life together begins.

“I’m not getting my hopes up about one place or another,” Parks said. “That way, I won’t be disappointed. Let the chips fall where they may.”

Then cash in, big time.