NBA Lockout: Cherokee Parks Is Back In Basketball, Ending Eight-Year Retirement

Cherokee Parks played his last NBA game for the Golden State Warriors on December 17, 2003. Since then, the 38-year-old has been out of professional basketball ... until now.

Parks has signed with Aubenas, a team that plays in the fourth division in France as far as I can tell, according to the team's official website. The 6-foot-11 center has already reported to the team, apparently deciding that he doesn't want to sit idle during this NBA lockout like he did during the 1998 version.

There doesn't seem to be a good explanation of why Parks decided to get back into basketball -- he's a Duke grad, made over $10 million during a nine-year NBA career and is rumored to be a good lover in the comments of websites I've never heard of until now -- but he's apparently decided to begin a comeback and everyone should be happy.

Parks averaged a pedestrian 4.4 points and 3.6 rebounds after being selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the lottery portion of the 1995 NBA Draft. Those contributions aren't all that important, however, as it seems he paved the way for the white guys with awful tattoos phase that brought us such luminaries as Chris Andersen and Robert Swift and also wore the Rip Hamilton facemask (during his time with the Minnesota Timberwolves) prior to Rip making it famous.

Who says the overseas market for locked out former NBA players is weak?!