TP, the new hip hop icon?

PARIS (The Monday International Show) - French NBA star Tony Parker is getting some major heat from worldwide media about his first rap album.

From the New york Post on down, hip hop critics and media observers seem reticent about the content and perplexed by Tony P's need to shine on this different stage.

After putting on a diappointing show for friends at Houston's all star weekend with shockingly vulgar lyrics for his young fans, he has just come out with an overblown marketing campaign with big time partners to sell this new toned down, clichè ridden, commercial version of his rap artistry!

It all smacks of trying to make a quick buck off of his new found celebrity, which, thanks to his relationship with tv star, Eva Longoria, goes beyond the boundaries of sports fans and into the realm of the "people"; those poor, rich jet setters and fly by night modern, superficial famous beings like Paris Hilton! Puke!

Tony's young and successful and can do whatever he pleases just as everyone else has the right to criticize, something Florida's Joakim Noah is learning this season too!

As Tony says, no one believed he'd make the NBA when he was a frail kid growing up in France either, but he believed in his basketball talent then the way he believes in his musical talent now.

As long as he realizes, along with the majority of the new generation NBA wannabe global icons, that all these off court oppurtunities (music, movies, sponsor deals etc.) only exist because of his on court performances, he should be okay!

Hopeully his family and numerous advisers are there to offer good advice because all this attention could make any 24 year old's head spin!

In a day and age when a few poorly chosen words by a Tim Hardaway or a Michael Ray Richardson, who obviously lack tolerance and savvy, can taint a whole career, it's important to get good communications advice!

Tony's a good kid that I watched grow up-after having played against his dad in the French pro leagues- and all through his stints at INSEP (national basketball school), then as a pro at 18 leading Paris' top team and on different national squads, he's been pretty humble and especially faithful to his French roots despite a very international background (he's french-dutch-american born in belgium!).

I guess he grew up watching Shaq (the only one to really sell any records), Kobe, Artest and Iverson trying to rap with varying degrees of personal investment and thought, why not me?

Maybe, like Kobe before him, he just got tired of his own squeaky clean image even though that image has certainly played a role in his immense popularity.

I can only hope that as he matures he'll want to use his talent and notoriety to defend worthwhile values and causes (why not a Tony Parker good guy cartoon character for instance?) the way his best friend Boris Diaw is discretely helping the african country of his father, Senegal, or on a grander scale the way Mutombo has generously supported the Congo!

George Eddy