Robert Parish Thinks His Wife Talks Too Much

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/05/the-extra-pass-talking-showtime-lakers-with-author-jeff-pearlman/


An excerpt:


“The Lakers used to have a PR guy named Josh Rosenfeld. I think it was after the game where Kurt Rambis got clotheslined by Kevin McHale (Game 4 of the 1984 NBA Finals) and after that game everything was really heated. They are at the Boston Garden and I guess Kurt Rambis handed him a towel after the game and the fans are yelling stuff and they are calling Kareem ‘Lew’ for Lew Alcindor and all this stuff.

“So Rosenfeld has this towel and he just chucks it toward the Boston fans and he ends up hitting Robert Parish’s wife in the face. And all of the Celtics are really pissed and some of the Celtics are knocking on the Lakers locker room door, guys like M.L. Carr are really mad and took this as a real thing. So Pat Riley was very upset with Josh Rosenfeld. This was a peripheral opponent (a favorite term of Riley’s), this was something that wasn’t necessary, and he demanded that Josh Rosenfeld apologize.

“The next day it’s an off day, and he goes to the Celtics’ practice. When he sees Robert Parish he says ‘Hey can I talk to you for a minute’ and they sit in the stands and he’s almost getting teary, Josh is, saying ‘I’ve got nothing but respect for you, I certainly didn’t mean to disrespect you. I’m so sorry, really I’m so sorry.’

“And Parish, the Chief, kind of a quiet guy, pauses for a minute and he says, in not so many words, ‘I’ve been waiting for somebody to get that lady to shut up forever. So I have no problem with you.’”



bob


.

As a married man there is so much I'd like to comment on about this.

As a married man I'll simply leave it be in case my wife ever sees this.

I'll just sit here and smile to myself...

NYCelt wrote:As a married man there is so much I'd like to comment on about this.

As a married man I'll simply leave it be in case my wife ever sees this.

I'll just sit here and smile to myself...

It's only been two years but I'm a quick learner and will follow suit and for same reasons

This would be funny without context, but here is the context of Robert Parish's relationship with his ex-wife that takes the jest out of it for me:
From a 1995 SI report...

http://cnnsi.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1006885/index.htm

" After his ex-wife's description of how Parish beat her (page 62), it doesn't matter how many points he has scored or games he has played.

Our hero, it turns out, is the worst kind of coward. According to Nancy Saad, Parish abused her for years, beginning when they were dating in 1981 and culminating in a severe beating during the '87 NBA playoffs that left her hospitalized with head injuries for a week. She draws a detailed picture of Parish that could not be more disparate from the public perception of the future Hall of Famer, and it leaves us wondering how, in this age of a minicam on every corner, we could have been so blind. Maybe the young tough guys in the press box are not as far removed from the old ink-stained lushes who played cards with their heroes on the midnight train to Chicago as we would like to believe."

Matty wrote:

NYCelt wrote:As a married man there is so much I'd like to comment on about this.

As a married man I'll simply leave it be in case my wife ever sees this.

I'll just sit here and smile to myself...

It's only been two years but I'm a quick learner and will follow suit and for same reasons

right, ditto

The SI article on Parish beating his wife is odd in so far as it refers to no sources except for the Chief's ex-wife.  You'd think that the allegations of physical abuse would have come out during their divorce, especially if it was corroborated by medical reports about the injuries she claimed he inflicted.  Yet the article simply accepts the wife's accusations.

The one aspect of the article that was consistent with other things I've read was this:

" Unlike Parish, Saad (Parish's wife) had a history of emotional outbursts in public, including memorable verbal assaults on reporters, referees and opponents. She was casually dismissed as a crazy woman by most of the Boston media..."

Bill Simmons in his "Basketball Book" writes about how he saw Saad, Parish's wife, having to be physically restrained several times from going after the refs after bad calls on her husband.  Simmons recalled that that he thought that Parish hadn't divorced  her yet because he feared that he'd  wake up  handcuffed to the bed with the house on fire.

Seems that the SI article would include Simmons among those who casually dismissed Saad as a crazy woman.



I'm not saying that Saad must have been lying about the abuse.  But when writing about such serious accusations you'd think that the writer would try to find independent corroboration.

For the record, I loved the Chief when he played here. My reaction to his arrest for having primo weed fedex'ed to him was, "The guy's even cooler than I thought."

Obviously wife-beating isn't on the level of smoking MJ and if there's proof tending to confirm Saad's accusations I'd like to see it.

A google search has found this:

"The domestic violence incident of June 2, 1987 with his then-wife, Nancy Saad, also still haunts him. “We were in Los Angeles to play the Lakers [in the NBA Finals]. She came by to my hotel and I had a guest. She flips out ’cause I’ve got a guest.”

The argument escalated and Parish lost his temper. He said he pushed her into a doorway across the hall.

“Looking back on it, her intent was to provoke me to do something physically and it succeeded,’’ he said. “I take the blame for that, hook, line and sinker. I’m not going to downplay the domestic violence. I’m not going to downplay that under no circumstance, I regret it. You should never put your hands on a woman, under any circumstances.’’

He admits the pot and the domestic violence are 'skeletons in his closet.'

'But you’re talking about the ’80s and ’90s, good gracious . . . Let it go. We all deserve a second chance.'"

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/01/26/robert-parish-yearns-for-nba-coaching-job/O3jeC9Y8GUqnLYVmvAsbLM/story.html

Parish, while not broke, has sold his championship rings, the ring he got for being named one of the 50 greatest players and other things from his playing days. And he believes that the domestic violence incidents and weed bust has played a part in not being able to get a job with an NBA team.