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Cavaliers put players’ well-being in Parker’s good hands
Austintown native and team doctor fixed Irving’s fractured kneecap
By Joe Scalzo
Last Saturday, just before Dr. Richard Parker operated on the most famous kneecap in the country, he gave Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving a few words of encouragement.
“I said, ‘I don’t know how to make one or two foul shots in front of 21,000 people, but I understand how to fix patellas and take care of players,’” he said. “That’s my role.”
Parker, a 1974 Austintown Fitch High graduate, has been the head team physician for the Cleveland Cavaliers since 2000. But he’s also the chairman of the department of Orthopaedic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and the president of Marymount Hospital. He’s published more than 150 academic papers and knows more about knee injuries than Cleveland fans know about heartache.
Not bad for a dry cleaner’s son from Youngstown.
“My dad is retired now but he owned Dale Dry Cleaners, so I grew up in the family business and understood what hard work was,” said Parker, who spoke by phone Tuesday afternoon from Cleveland. “I watched my dad work seven days a week and I started working when I was very young, so work is anything but foreign to me.”
Parker was a member of Fitch’s 1972 state championship cross country team — when asked if he was a teammate of longtime Fitch coach Rich Kempe, he quipped, “I saw his back, so the answer is yes” — and gravitated toward distance running because it was as much about toughness as talent. He then played soccer at Walsh College, where he earned a degree in chemistry in 1978.
“I really enjoyed playing basketball but I was never that good at it,” he said. “It became very clear to me, both in my running and in basketball, that I better learn how to use my brain. Because genetically, I was not a gifted athlete.”
But while Parker doesn’t have LeBron James’ talent, he does share one advantageous trait: both are ambidextrous.
“When I do arthroscopic surgery, that really helps because you’re using both hands,” Parker said.
Parker attended Ohio State’s medical school and, outside of a one-year orthopaedic fellowship in Salt Lake City, he’s spent his entire life in Ohio. His wife of 35 years, Jana (Dahman) Parker, also grew up in Austintown — they now live in Chagrin Falls and have two grown children — and Jana’s mother lives in Canfield. Parker’s parents live in Struthers. He said he gets back home several times a year and sees a lot of injured athletes from the Youngstown area at his practice.
“One of the things I’m very proud of is being from Youngstown, Ohio,” he said. “The reason I’m here in Cleveland is because it allowed me to reach a lot of my goals. Otherwise, I’d still be in Youngstown. It’s just that Youngstown doesn’t have a Cleveland Clinic, it doesn’t have professional teams. I wasn’t able to do what I needed to do to be academically satisfied.
“But growing up in Austintown, I was exposed to hard work. I was exposed to the need to be dedicated, to what you had to do to achieve success in cross country. It set the framework for all the success I’ve enjoyed academically, to doing what it takes to be a doctor and a surgeon and a sports medicine specialist.”
While Parker’s life is always hectic, the past few weeks have been even crazier. Unlike the regular season, when he only attends home games, Parker travels with the Cavaliers during the playoffs. Last week, for instance, he flew commercial to Oakland on Tuesday, stayed through Thursday night’s game (and Irving’s injury), spent Friday at Stanford Medical Center (with Irving), flew back Saturday morning to operate on Irving’s knee, flew back to Oakland for Sunday’s game, then flew home and worked a full day at his practice on Monday.
Irving’s surgery was successful and he’s expected to make a full recovery in three or four months, but it ended a frustrating postseason that saw him battle knee and leg injuries.
“What people need to understand is, Kyrie had a very eventful summer and early fall with USA basketball,” Parker said. “He was the MVP [of the FIBA World Cup] and at the top of his game, then he stepped right into the NBA season and played 75 out of 82 games. Then he went into the playoffs for the first time. He’s never played this long in his life without significant time off.
“LeBron played in the Finals last year but he took time off and came back to training camp in shape, then it crescendoed during the year. He takes incredible care of his body. He’s really disciplined and mature. It’s really fun to watch.”
Like everyone in the city, Parker has enjoyed watching the Cavaliers’ run to the Finals. But, ultimately, his job is to be a doctor, not a fan.
“It’s not that I’m not excited or that it isn’t exciting — it is exciting and it was exciting back in 2007 when they were in the Finals against San Antonio — but as a head team physician, my role is to control that excitement,” he said. “I need to be available and think clearly as it relates to making sure my players’ health is optimized and we don’t do anything to adversely affect the length of their career.”