Parkinson reflects on journey that almost never was

Tom Parkinson has become among the smartest and most efficient players over his 250-game SBL/NBL1 West career and before he arrived at Lakeside, it was a life he never envisioned but given what it's brought him including meeting wife Tia Ucich, he'll forever be grateful.

Basketball wasn’t ever something that was a huge part of Parkinson's life until he reached his 20s and was invited to be part of the under-23s team at Lakeside after he was spotted playing domestically.

Not only had he not played WABL before, he didn’t even know what it was at that point, but if you fast forward 13 years, and he has made a career out of using his basketball brain, being a terrific shooter for his size, and strong big man role player.

He played in a championship with Lakeside in 2013 and has had a fascinating ride in recent years spending three years in Melbourne with Tia where he played two Big V seasons, and then played 2022 at the Joondalup Wolves to be with his wife.

However, he's back home now at Lakeside in 2023, is enjoying the new-look team he is part of and on Saturday night celebrated his 250th game in style with the win over the Willetton Tigers at Lakeside Recreation Centre.

Perfect celebration of 250th game

Any player who reaches a milestone will always tell you that unless the team wins the occasion won't be that fondly remembered despite the pride in the achievement of getting there.

However, for Parkinson it turned out being the perfect night on all fronts as he celebrated his 250th game on Saturday night with Lakeside knocking off the second placed Willetton Tigers in style and to move into the top eight as a result.

"It was really cool. We needed to get that one after starting the season off again when we made a few changes to the line-up in the middle of the year, and now heading towards playoffs," Parkinson said.

"We needed that one because if we dropped it then it was going to be a pretty steep uphill battle. That was the main thing to come out of it and the attention associated with the 250th was a little bit uncomfortable for me, I'm never really one to chase that sort of thing. 

"It still felt really nice to hear from a few old teammates and to be celebrated, but getting the win was the main focus. It does make it a little bit more special back in purple and to be back around the community I've played at for so long. 

"So that was really nice and Lakeside always does a great job of celebrating their players who have been there for a long time. We don't usually have a history of winning those milestone games, though, so it was nice we got over the line in that one."

Joining wife at the Wolves last year

It might have been quite the interesting ride for Parkinson since he initially left Lakeside at the end of 2017. There was three years in Melbourne where he continued to play in the Big V with the McKinnon Cougars which included a championship in 2019 and then a lost season in 2020.

He returned home and rejoined Lakeside in 2021 while celebrating his 200th game in the league in the process. Having spent their last three years firstly in Melbourne and then back in Perth playing at different clubs, though, it was time for husband and wife to be reconnected in a basketball sense.

With Tia settled at the Joondalup Wolves, Parkinson joined her at the Wolfpack and was glad to do so for more couple time and he has nothing bad to say about his time there, but the travel became too much.

"The main reason I went to the Wolves definitely was to play at the same club as Tia again, but that wasn’t the main reason I left Lakeside in the first place," Parkinson said.

"They went through a period with a few issues around the club and having the coach leave late in the piece, and I sort of left seeking opportunities before all that went down. So I was lucky in that sense and Wolves were the No. 1 option because of Tia being there. 

"When we moved to Melbourne we played at separate clubs and then when we got back she was at a different club straightaway so we hadn’t seen much of each other play for four or five years.

"That was the main motivation and then talking to David (Morrell) and the team at Wolves, they needed some support in the big stocks and it worked out really well. 

"I couldn’t say a single bad thing about the club and how much I was welcomed, but the only bad thing was having to drive up the freeway because we live near Lakeside."

Coming home to Lakeside

Parkinson decided that if he was going to continue playing in 2023 and potentially beyond, that he would only be doing it at Lakeside and he was thankful that new coach Mike Malat saw a role for him.

"Everything else about it was awesome there, but the pull to come back to Lakeside was speaking to Mike once he was appointed coach in the off-season," he said.

"I'm 34 now so at my age I'm looking at every off-season if there's an opportunity for me to play still because I do love it, but I do need to think about if it's the right thing to be doing. It's a balancing act with work and everything else at this point.

"Once I spoke with Mike, I decided if I was going to play again this year it was only going to be at Lakeside because that's home for me and where I've played most of my career. 

"It all lined up with Mike wanting to put together a strong team and there was a spot there for another big, and I had no issues coming off the bench and playing a supportive role. 

"I was just keen to contribute and help lead, and it all aligned with what he was wanting and everything he's been about since has been fantastic. I can't say enough about him, he's turned things around quickly and it's been great."

This team looks a lot of fun to play with

The Lightning team of 2023 might be just currently clinging to a playoff spot with a 7-8 record, but it was always going to take some time for things to come together.

With Mike Malat taking over as a new coach, new imports Hayden Brown and Daniel Green settling in, and then Josh Davey missing pre-season because of his NBL season in Cairns and Rowan Mackenze a later starter finishing up college, it was always going to be a work in progress. 

To watch the Lakeside team play now and they are exciting and tough to beat highlighted by having won four of the last five, and Parkinson only expects their momentum to continue to grow.

"Despite the issues with the wins and loss column, there's been no issues at all internally with the team. We've been all pulling in the same direction trying to learn a new system with Mike coming in," Parkinson said.

"That presents its challenges but everyone has bought into what he's trying to do so there's no issues or concerns from the playing group. It's been amazing fun and the culture with the group of guys is one of the main reasons I'm still playing now with the social outlet you get, and the fun you have with all your mates on the team. 

"The struggles with wins and losses have just been down to the learning curve of adding players and then having guys coming in late, and not really doing a pre-season. We've got a new coach and probably half our rotation missed all the pre-season so it just takes some time to gel. 

"I still think we can make a push from here, though, and it's definitely the most talented 'poor record' team that I've been on so far so I can see us ripping off a number of wins in-a-row and hopefully making the playoffs."

Spending three years in Melbourne

Life took Parkinson along with his wife to Melbourne back in 2018 and they would spend three years there, which he will always treasure even if they were there in 2020 when the world basically went into lockdown thanks to COVID.

While the move wasn’t basketball related, the pair found new homes in the Big V in Melbourne and were both able to win a championship each in 2019 which helped to make up for the fact that they were playing at different clubs.

"It was great. We moved for Tia's work and she works in the radio/media/podcasting industry so she got a job at one of the radio stations in Melbourne which was a really great opportunity for her," Parkinson said.

"So we went together and I started looking for work when we got there, and we both wanted to keep playing basketball. We ended up playing in the Big V and the whole experience outside of the COVID lockdowns was phenomenal. 

"We loved it and it was good to experience life on the east coast, and I've got some family in Melbourne as well so that was nice to connect with them a bit more. We ended up playing on separate teams which was a bit of a frustration, but we found teams that were great. 

"Tia was playing for the Hawthorn Magic and I played for the McKinnon Cougars, and we ended up only playing two seasons before the third one was cancelled, but we both won championships in the second season which was really special."

Main motivation to keep on playing

Parkinson is now at an interesting point in his career. He doesn't want to keep playing if he's holding anyone else back or if he's not making a contribution that's positive to his team, but at the same time he wants to live the rest of his life knowing he got the most out of his playing days.

While ultimately the goal is to win and to win championships, for Parkinson it goes a bit deeper than that.

"I wouldn’t say that championships are the No. 1 thing I'm playing for, I would say winning is and then hopefully that's a by product of that," Parkinson said.

"I'm only playing still so I can contribute to the team winning so if Lakeside decided to go down a path of playing the young guys and rebuilding, I'd happily step aside to facilitate that. But the desire to win is the main motivating factor on top of the social side of things to play with your mates. 

"I don’t ever want to be in a situation where I look back on playing and wish I played longer so that's why every off-season I think about if I still have that hunger to keep going. You're a long time retired so I don’t want to look back and wish I played longer.

"I would say I'm motivated by winning and being part of a strong team rather than that end goal of a championship. What I mean is that it's the week to week process of learning a new team concept so you can contribute to winning, and learning the scout for a team and everything.

"I still love that side of basketball and that's the side of it where I feel I can keep getting better, and contributing to help us execute the best we can to get a win."

Milestone provides the chance for some reflection

What reaching the 250-game milestone did provide for Parkinson at this point in his career was the chance to reflect.

And when reflecting on his career mostly at Lakeside, the first and most important thing that springs to mind is that it's what brought him and wife Tia together.

"The first thing that I reflected on after the game about my time from Lakeside is that it's where I met Tia," he said.

"She's gone on to become my wife and the first step of our story together was that we met playing basketball at Lakeside. So that's the No. 1 thing that stands out to me and it's really cool to be able to reflect on that. Tia and I spoke about that and have had a bit of a reflection on it over the last week or so."

On the basketball front, it also provides Parkinson with the chance to look back on a career that began in the SBL in 2010 when he joined a Lakeside team that was a powerhouse at the time under the coaching of Andy Stewart.

What's most remarkable upon reflection is the fact that Parkinson had never played truly organised basketball until a year before he joined Lakeside's SBL program.

To think that he's now become a 250-game player in the league, is a championship winner from that 2013 team and when he's on the court, he's one of the highest IQ players out there, the fact it came from humble beginnings is quite incredible.

Then there's the other memories and highlights that spring to mind when you do start to look back.

"But getting to the milestone has made me think back to all the years that I've played having started out under Andy and having him as my coach for those first four years," Parkinson said.

"I came in straight out of one season of under-23s in WABL and I'd never played anything other than rec league before that. I didn't even know WABL existed until Lakeside asked me to come try out for the under-23 league after they saw me play domestically.

"So from 2010-13 it was with Andy and it was just about learning basically because I didn’t really know how to play structured basketball so I was learning how to play man-to-man defence, guarding ball screens and an actual offence. 

"I had missed all that because I never played WABL so I was a bit like a really skinny Prue who could actually shoot when I first came in who didn’t know what I was doing. Then after that I got a little bit more opportunity after Andy left and some other guys moved away or retired, firstly with Dave Olley coaching and then Sam Oatman coming in. 

"I got a fair bit of opportunity under Sam especially and really enjoyed that even though we weren’t quite still competing for championships. We had young guys like Daniel Grida, Andrew Ferguson and Corey Shervill coming through so it was really fun watching them grow in such a short time. 

"So I have had a chance to reflect a bit over the past week or so on everything and each year has its own story, and the memories that you keep from them."