Quadruple NBA champion and first Frenchman to enter the “Hall of Fame”, Tony Parker will be officially inducted into the American “basketball pantheon” in Springfield, Massachusetts on Saturday August 12.
Published on: 08/12/2023 – 06:48
3 mn
After the Habs Draft Victor Wembanyama in the NBA and the media avalanche it has aroused, Tony Paker, the best French basketball player of all time, will make his entry into the mythical Hall of Fame.
« Even in my wildest dreams, I never could have imagined getting into the Hall of Fame. “, said Parker in an interview with the press, a few days before the ceremony. The 41-year-old former player is the first Frenchman to receive this honor across the Atlantic.
Four-time NBA champion with the Spurs
Since the first class of 1959, they are 197 former players – the Hall of Fame is also made up of players, coaches, teams, referees, managers and other contributors – from the North American league and beyond who have been inducted by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famethe body that manages this “basketball pantheon”. Kobe Bryant had been honored posthumously in 2021.
Parker, four-time NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014) was the first European MVP (best player) in a final in 2007. He was 25 at the time. ” It has always been my motivation to show Americans that in France, we know how to play basketball “, explained the French leader. Tony Parker delivered a fabulous NBA career between 2001 and 2019. He compensated for his modest size (1.88 m) with his speed, his penetrations in the racket and his professionalism.
Among the honors given to him, Tony Parker had already had his shirt retired by Spurs in 2019. But the Hall of Fame is a notch above, you enter another galaxy “Admits the man who won Euro 2013 with France in Slovenia by beating Spain, their eternal rival, in the semi-finals.
Intronisation de son mentor Gregg Popovich
Four years after hanging up his sneakers, Tony Parker will be introduced by Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, already members of this “basketball museum” and with whom he formed one of the most formidable trios in Spurs history, before taking part. -even the induction of Gregg Popovich, five-time champion on the San Antonio bench and the most successful coach in the NBA. ” It’s like a second father to me Parker said of the one who welcomed him to Texas at age 19 and who he will stay with. bound forever ».
In the 2023 vintage, there are also two other Europeans: the German Dirk Nowitzki, 6th best scorer in NBA history, crowned in 2011 with Dallas, and the Spaniard Pau Gasol, twice champion with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010 and with a huge international track record. With Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol, Parker opened the doors of the NBA wide for European players, in particular the French, the second largest international contingent in the NBA for several years.
On the occasion of the Paris Olympics in 2024, it will be France’s turn to celebrate its champion. The French Basketball Federation will organize two meetings of the French men’s and women’s teams on July 12, 2024. Two preparation matches for the competition in the new enclosure of ASVEL, a club chaired by Parker, in the suburbs of Lyon. During this day, the federation will withdraw the number 9 of the tricolor leader.
