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Tony Parker, four-time NBA champion with San Antonio, is the first Frenchman in history to enter the American Basketball Hall of Fame, the prestigious institution announced on Saturday. He will be inducted along with two other Europeans, the German Dirk Nowitzki and the Spaniard Pau Gasol.
It is on August 12 in Springfield (Massachusetts) that French basketball player Tony Parker will officially enter the history of the Hall of Fame during an induction ceremony into the NBA Hall of Fame. He will be accompanied by the German Dirk Nowitzki, and the Spaniard Pau Gasol. These three basketball players are the first in their country to know this supreme honor, reserved for the elite of the elite of the orange ball.
This 2023 vintage is exceptional in more than one way, because Europe finds itself in force for the first time in the Hall of Fame, Dwyane Wade being the only American to complete the quartet of former players.
Parker, the man with four rings
Parker, winner of Euro-2013 with France, can above all boast of having more champion rings than his two acolytes (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014), all won with the San Antonio Spurs, alongside Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, already members of the Hall of Fame, with whom he formed one of the most formidable “Big 3” in history. He is also the first European elected MVP of a final in 2007.
An inveterate scorer, the German Dirk Nowitzki is the 6th best scorer in NBA history (31 560 stitches in 1 522 games) in the regular season. First European elected MVP (best player) of the regular season in 2007, the “ prodigy guided the Dallas Mavericks, his lifelong team, to the only title in their history in 2011.
It is an honor for me to have been elected to the NBA Hall of Fame in the first ballot. I’m very emotive. I could never have imagined, in my wildest dreams, to be there one day. Thank you all for supporting me! pic.twitter.com/4qmZoMDB9x
— Tony Parker (@tonyparker) April 1, 2023
Pau Gasol was crowned champion twice with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010, in the role of lieutenant of Kobe Bryant. Recently, their numbers have been enthroned side by side on the ceiling of the LA hall. The Barcelonian also has one of the finest records on the international level, once world champion (2006) and three times European champion (2009, 2011, 2015).
Among the other personalities named are Gregg Popovich, five-time champion with San Antonio and the most successful coach in the NBA, as well as Becky Hamon, who was the latter’s assistant from 2014 to 2021, becoming for a short interim the first female head coach of a professional men’s team.
(With AFP)