One would have imagined that growing up with a father as rich and famous as Tony Parker, would dispense with a certain number of realities of ordinary life. In the Asap Junior podcast, the former San Antonio Spurs leader wanted to clarify things on his educational philosophyand she is as direct as her game was on the court. “My children, I always tell them: be careful, you are not rich. Dad, he is rich, but you, you are not richit’s not your money”he says straight away. It must be said that Tony Parker built his fortune through hard work, and he has no intention of letting his two boys Josh, born in 2014, and Liam, born in 2016, believe that all this is theirs by right. A parental philosophy that he shares with their mother, Axelle Francine. Despite their separation in 2020, the two parents seem to be keeping the same educational course despite the distance.
His way of doing things in terms of education came to fruition in a recent anecdote. One day, at the airport, the family is preparing to fly for vacation. As in all airports in the world, there are corridors which turn right towards the economic one, and those which turn left towards the first. And there, Parker observes his sons who naturally and a little too naturally gravitate towards first class. “I say: where are you going?“he says with the smile that we can easily imagine. The rest, his boys didn’t see it coming! What’s tasty about this story is that Tony Parker himself admits that ça n’a pas été simple à assumer.
“I had a hard time doing it, but I wanted to hold on.”
“You’re going to take a little eco tour there.” and he wasn’t kidding. Josh and Liam traveled in economy class, while their father sat quietly in first. “They looked at me like I wasn’t serious”he remembers. But Parker held on, despite the pang in his heart. “I had a hard time doing this, but I wanted to send a message: it’s not guaranteed that you will travel first class for the rest of your life.”he explains.
When we returned from vacation, the reunion on the plane had a very special flavor. This time, the two boys got in first with their father and they really enjoyed it. “When we got on the plane, they were so happy, as if we were meeting again”says Parker, visibly moved. “But since that day, they are so grateful now, every time we get on a plane, because I think ça les a marqués à vie.”
Tony Parker: an education method for parents from very wealthy families
What Tony Parker describes, basically, is something rare in very wealthy families: the active desire not to cut off one’s children from a sense of reality. Easy to say, less easy to do when you can afford everything and love your family. The fact that he himself admits having “had a hard time” to let them go economically says everything about the sincerity of the approach.
At 42, Tony Parker seems to have found fatherhood a field in which he is invested with as much seriousness as in his sporting career. And if Josh and Liam inherit even part of their father’s mentality, they probably already have what it takes to forge their own path with or without first class.
