At 38, TJ (short for Terrence Jonathan) Parker has perhaps silenced critics and skeptics for good: under his leadership, Asvel offered themselves their 20th and 21st French championship titles and added to their winners of a Coupe de France (2020).

This season, the Rhone club did not shine in the Euroleague (14th out of 15) despite an encouraging start and experienced premature elimination from the Coupe de France (quarter-finals), but it ended the 2021-22 financial year in style. by victoriously completing (3-2) a final where it has always been led.

"TJ is a competitor, he has a winning character", analyzes the deputy president of Asvel Gaëtan Muller.

"He put his mark on the team with the staff. They were able to mobilize and readjust especially in the final after the defeats in matches 1 and 3. After match 1, the risk was that the soldiers let go “, recalls the Villeurbannais leader.

However, at the time of his appointment in June 2020, a year ahead of forecasts, things were not looking easy for the youngest of the Parker siblings.

Associated with Frédéric Fauthoux who will leave this summer for Bourg-en-Bresse, TJ Parker must always deal with suspicions of favoritism.

- "The good moment" -

"I understand that people may wonder about the fact that TJ is my brother. But he has been at the club for eight years and he ticks all the boxes. It was the right time," said his eldest during the course. of the press conference presenting the club's new management in June 2020.

"TJ knows the rules. At Asvel, you have to bring back trophies. He has his chance for six months and then we will see the results on the club's performance", had also warned the quadruple NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs.

If at equal value, "TP" always favors his family or relatives like Marie-Sophie Obama at the head of women's Lyon-Asvel or his friend Gaëtan Müller, he therefore remains very demanding.

He does not make gifts and will not make any to TJ if the situation requires it.

A few weeks ago, "TP" swept aside the rumor announcing the coach of the France team, Vincent Collet, as coach of Asvel.

- French Champion with Nancy -

We tend to forget that as a player, TJ Parker was champion of France with Nancy in 2008, and it was difficult for him, to lead his career on the courts, to make a name for himself, because we have too many often pitted against the world-renowned talent of his brother.

As a coach, before being promoted to N.1, he was an assistant from 2013 at Asvel and he had acted for six months after the ousting of French-Canadian JD Jackson in 2018, and during six matches, including two Euroleague, when the Montenegrin Zvezdan Mitrovic was ill in January 2020.

But the Rhone club's triumphant end to the 2020-2021 season with a Coupe de France followed by the championship title obtained in Rouen in a final phase played on a single site with dry matches, silenced all criticism of its lack of experience.

During the 2022 final, after the defeats recorded in matches 1 and 3 (82-74, 83-80), his team was able to respond in the 2nd, 4th and 5th sets (91-54, 85-68, 84-82).

"The brother of" was then able to remobilize his group, find the psychological and tactical springs to counter the formidable Monegasque armada and offer his club a third consecutive French champion crown (2019, 2021, 2022), his second personal.

© 2022 AFP