Parker Trains Alone as Partizan Hunts for a New Club
While the squad trains together under Djoan Penjaroja, Jabari Parker works out alone at Belgrade Arena. Partizan wants out of a five million deal, and he has no reason to give up the money.
Belgrade Arena is half empty in late August, but there is work happening in it every day. While most of Partizan’s roster sweats through a group session run by Djoan Penjaroja, one man works alone in a corner of the court. Jabari Parker trains individually, with no ball to pass to a teammate and no system to learn alongside the rest of the team. He shows up every day, but completely apart from the squad.
The scene has played out since August 22, when the black and whites gathered at the arena for the first time ahead of the new season. Fourteen players were at the team meeting with Penjaroja and his staff: Vanja Marinkovic, Zofri Lovernj, Tonje Dzekiri, Alesandro Pajola, Luka Vildoza, Lamar Stivens, Derik Vilis, Uros Mijailovic, Mario Nakic, Kajl Olmen, Djordje Sekularac, Uros Danilovic, Nikola Djurovic and Kevarius Hejs. Four more, Itan Tompson, Arijan Lakic, Nikola Tanaskovic and Karlik Dzouns, were away on national team duty and will join the club later. Parker was not on the list, even though he had already arrived in Belgrade and fulfilled his contractual obligation to show up for preseason.
The absence is not down to injury or paperwork. It is a coaching decision. According to Mozzart Sport, Penjaroja does not see the American in his plans for the coming season. Assistant coaches on Penjaroja’s staff are now handling Parker’s individual work, even though Penjaroja himself is a coach Parker worked well with last year, back when Penjaroja was still at Barcelona. That old relationship is not helping now. The same coach who valued him in Catalonia is not planning around him in Belgrade.
Partizan’s official channels regularly post videos and photos from preseason training. Parker does not appear in any of them.
The problem is money, and even the reporting on the currency is split. Sportklub says the deal is a two year contract worth five million euros, while B92 and Espreso report a figure of five million dollars gross. Every outlet agrees the contract is guaranteed and carries no exit clause, meaning Partizan cannot simply cancel it. A termination would require paying out the full amount at once, so instead the club is looking for another team willing to take on at least part of Parker’s salary.
Something similar has already happened. Last season Parker played for Joventut, which covered part of his pay, but the Catalan club could not meet the financial demands of either Parker or Partizan, and the arrangement ended after a single season. Parker, for his part, has no reason to walk away from money his contract guarantees him, and that is exactly the knot nobody has managed to untie so far.
For comparison, when Partizan went through a similar situation with Sejk Milton, the buyout cost the club 100,000 dollars. Parker’s case is far more expensive given the size and structure of his contract, so that route does not look like something the club could easily repeat.
Parker was once the second pick of the 2014 NBA draft, out of Duke, and he joined Partizan after a spell at Barcelona. His talent was never in question, but the club now has to deal with the gap between what Parker once promised and what Penjaroja is asking of his roster today.
On top of that, Partizan has entered the season with changes to its coaching staff as well. Uros Dragicevic is no longer an assistant coach; Oliver Stevic has taken his place. Former national team player Vladimir Micov has joined the club’s sporting department as director of basketball operations. Former Partizan players Bandza Si and Nemanja Gordic are helping the staff through the early part of preseason, after which they will move on to work with the youth categories at Metalac.
While negotiations continue and the search for a club willing to take on part of the contract goes on, Parker will keep showing up at Belgrade Arena every morning, training alone, waiting on an outcome that is out of his hands. Partizan is starting the season with no clear answer on what happens to the most expensive player on its roster, and as preseason continues, that question will not wait for the first official game.
