A pure NBA legend can be recognized by a few criteria: 1/If he has a champion’s ring on one of his fingers. 2/If he was selected for an All Star Game. 3/If he was elected MVP of the season or the final. 4/If his team has removed his jersey from the ceiling of the room. 5/If he enters the NBA Hall of Fame. Tony Parker fulfilled four of the five criteria. He was crowned four-time NBA champion (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014) with San Antonio, was selected six times for the All-Star Game – which takes place this weekend in Salt Lake City – and was elected 2007 NBA Finals MVP.
And then, in 2019, the San Antonio Spurs retired the Frenchie’s number 9 flocked jersey. No one in the city of Fort Alamo will ever be able to wear it. A rare honor, reserved for a few super stars of this game. “It’s one of the greatest honors you can receive as a basketball player. When you have it, we can say that you have succeeded in your career, ”he had slipped to us at that time. Remains for Tony Parker to enter the Hall of Fame. It should be done in 2023. The Frenchman is part of the list of finalists unveiled on February 18 to register his name.
The Hall of Fame (“Hall of Fame” or “Pantheon of Glory” depending on the translation) is the holy of holies in American sports. Physically, for the NBA, this temple exists. He’s in Springfield, Massachusetts on the East Coast. It’s no coincidence that one winter day in 1891, a Canadian physical education teacher, James Naismith, invented basketball to keep his students busy. He himself is part of it. The place is also called the “Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame”. To have your napkin ring, it is not essential to have played in the NBA. University players, leaders, journalists are included: the most important thing is to have contributed to the universal development of basketball.
There are five ways to enter: if you are a player, coach, referee, “contributor” or if you are a legendary team. Among these is the 1992 Dream Team. There are twelve in total, all American. To be a “contributor” means to have helped the development of basketball. You have to be a manager like Jerry Krause who built the Chicago Bulls of the Jordan generation; owner like Jerry Buss that of the Lakers of the 1980s, businessmen (Phil Knight, the founder of Nike), journalist or former boss of the NBA like David Stern.
220 players, including 29 women
Among the coaches are notably Red Auerbach, the mentor of the Boston Celtics of the 1960s, Dean Smith the first coach of Jordan in college, Chuck Daly that of the Dream Team 1992 or Phil Jackson, that of the Bulls then the Lakers. The best referees in the NBA also have a room of their own. We don’t know him on this side of the Atlantic.
And then, of course, there are the players. To date, they are 220 to sit in this temple, including 29 women. Only twenty-four are not Americans. How are they chosen? The first condition is technical: a player must have stopped his career for at least three years to be entitled to it. LeBron James, the all-time leading scorer still active, is therefore not there yet. Tony Parker, retired since 2019, is eligible. Then you have to apply. Each player sends in a fact sheet and press clippings showing their performance and stats in the unlikely event that they need to justify themselves. This must be done no later than October 31 of the year preceding the possible election.
We will not go into the practical details but then, different committees for each category designate those who can claim to be elected. At the end, an “honor committee”. To be inducted, it is necessary to obtain at least 18 votes, out of the 24 of this committee of honor. If the player is not elected, he can try his luck again for five years. If at the end of these five years, it is still no, he will have to wait five years before representing himself. To avoid any form of pressure, the names of the members of these various committees are kept secret.
The Hall of Fame has existed since the end of the 1950s. Since then, with rare exceptions (1965, 1968 and 2007 for lack of candidates), one, two, three or four players, depending on the quality of the promotions, have entered it. To be eligible, it is better to have won an NBA or university title (NCAA), an Olympic title or to have been selected for an All Star Game. Without these criteria, it is useless to think about it.
Omissions and injustices are rare because all the basketball legends are there: Bill Russel, Bob Cousy, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O ‘Neal and so many others. “Being in the Hall of Fame is the greatest honor an athlete can have in any sport, Tony Kukoc had slipped to us during his induction in 2021. This means that you have left a mark, that we will remember. You. The induction ceremony is a special moment, full of emotion. It is above all a moment of great pride. »
Among the non-Americans, we find the Croatian genius Drazen Petrovic who died in a car accident thirty years ago, the Nigerian Hakeem Olajuwon, double NBA champion, the Lithuanian Arvidas Sabonis or the Serbian Vlade Divac. The latest is the Argentinian Manu Ginobili, elected in 2022. A few rare Europeans who have never played in the NBA are also there, such as the Greek Nikos Galis, the Italian Dino Meneghin and the Soviet Sergei Belov, Olympic champion in 1972 They dominated European basketball in their time and deserve it.
Parker will be the first French
There are currently no French. Tony Parker will, in all likelihood, be the first. His record in the NBA, his presence in the Spurs dynasty and his rich career in the France team, with which he was European champion in 2013, give him an almost guaranteed ticket to the “HoF”. He should be the only Frenchman there for a while: to date, only Rudy Gobert, triple All Star and triple best defender of the year can claim it. But not right now.
With his promotion, Europe will have three new ones: him, the German Dick Nowitzki, champion in 2011 with Dallas and MVP of the 2007 season, and the Spaniard Pau Gasol, twice titled with Kobe Bryant’s Lakers in 2009 and 2010 are eligible. They will also be elected, there is no doubt. The names of the new members will be announced on April 1, for an induction ceremony scheduled for August 12 in Springfield.