NBA: Tony Parker, first Frenchman to enter the Hall of Fame, the "basketball museum"

Four-time NBA champion and the first Frenchman to enter the "Hall of Fame", Tony Parker will be officially inducted Saturday, August 12 into the American "basketball hall of fame" in Springfield, Massachusetts.

ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne President Tony Parker in Paris on October 9, 2019. AFP/Archives

Text by: Farid Achache Follow

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After the Draft of the Tricolore Victor Wembanyama in the NBA and the media avalanche it aroused, Tony Paker, the best French basketball player of all time, will enter the mythical Hall of Fame.

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Even in my wildest dreams, I could never have imagined entering the Hall of Fame. Parker said 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 in 1959, they have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame – the Hall of Fame is also made up of players, coaches, teams, umpires, executives and other contributors – from the North American league and beyond who have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Kobe Bryant was honored posthumously in 197.

Parker, who became a four-time NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014), was the first European MVP of a finals in 2007. He was 25 years old at the time. "It's always been my motivation to show the Americans that in France, we knew how to play basketball," said the French point guard. Tony Parker delivered a fabulous NBA career between 2001 and 2019. He compensated for his modest height (1.88 m) with his speed, his penetrations into the racket and his professionalism.

Among the honours bestowed upon 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 one who won Euro 2013 with the France in Slovenia by beating, in the semifinals, Spain, eternal rival.

Inductee of his 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 history at the Spurs, before participating himself in the induction of Gregg Popovich, five-time champion on the bench of San Antonio and the most victorious coach in the NBA. "It's like a second father to me," Parker said of the man who welcomed him at 19 in Texas and with whom he will remain "forever connected."

Within the 2023 vintage, there are also two other Europeans: the German Dirk Nowitzki, 6th best scorer in the history of the NBA, crowned in 2011 with Dallas, and the Spaniard Pau Gasol, twice champion with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010 and with a huge record on the international level. Along with Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol, Parker has opened the doors of the NBA wide for European players, especially 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 the turn of the France to celebrate its champion. The French Basketball Federation will organize two meetings of the men's and women's France teams on July 12, 2024. Two preparation matches for the competition in the new stadium of ASVEL, a club chaired by Parker, in the suburbs of Lyon. On this day, the federation will retire the number 9 of the tricolor leader.

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