NBA: Europeans Nowitzki, Parker, Gasol named to Hall of Fame
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced its 2023 inductees on Saturday, ushering three leading European players into the prestigious institution in a single intake.
Dirk Nowitzki, who won the 2007 Most Valuable Player award and the 2011 NBA championship in a career spent exclusively with the Dallas Mavericks until his 2019 retirement, became the first German player ever to join the Hall of Fame.
On Twitter, Nowitzki said he was “so humbled and honored” to be part of the year’s “amazing class.” The German was widely seen as a lock to be chosen as one of the elites who enter the Hall of Fame, given he’s a 14-time All Star selection and the sixth highest-scoring player in league history.
Gasol, Parker, coach Popovich also join the ranks
Nowitzki’s rival power forward Pau Gasol of Spain, twice a champion with Kobe Bryant at the LA Lakers, also made the 2023 cut.
And the San Antonio Spurs’ French point guard Tony Parker also joined the intake, along with the legendary coach who helped him thrive in Texas, Gregg Popovich. Parker won four NBA titles at the Spurs, all under “Coach Pop,” who claimed five himself in more than 25 years in charge. Only five NBA coaches have won five or more titles ever.
Nowitzki praised perhaps slightly lesser known Europeans in the NBA who had helped blaze a trail before his generation came into the spotlight.
“I think there were a few guys who blazed the way for us a little bit,” Nowitzki said. “And then the next wave came with Pau, Tony and myself. And if we help to make the game truly global and help some kids along the way that’s obviously truly humbling for all of us.”
From an international trickle, to a flow, to a flood
The very first European players to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame never made it to the NBA but were honored for their achievements in international or European club basketball.
Legendary former Soviet Union guard Sergei Belov was the first international player to be inducted in 1992, having never played in the US. Latvia’s Uljana Semjonova from the women’s game followed a year later.
Kresimir Cosic, a former LA Laker, became the first NBA player from Europe to join in 1996.
And behind him, more Europeans like Arvydas Sabonis, Toni Kukoc and Drazen Petrovic — or Africans like Hakeem Olajuwon or Dikembe Mutombo — would go on to qualify.
And if top-tier European or international talent was becoming more commonplace by the time Nowitzki, Gasol and Parker were among the international stars of the NBA, it’s verging on being the norm now.
Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Serbia’s Nikola Jokic have won the league’s MVP award for best player in all of the last four seasons. And 24-year-old Luka Doncic, who played his rookie year alongside Nowitzki at the Mavs in 2019, seems likely to scale similar heights in time.
Dwayne Wade, Becky Hammon among US entries
Three-time NBA champion Dwayne Wade, a local boy born in Chicago, was the leading US men’s player in the intake. The explosive guard Wade won the NBA title with the Miami Heat in 2006, 2012, and 2013, and lost to Nowitzki’s Mavericks in the 2011 Finals.
From the women’s WNBA, star player and then trailblazing coach Becky Hammon made the 2023 inductees list. Hammon is a six-time All Star who went on to coach the Las Vegas Aces and lead them to the 2022 championship.
She was also Popovich’s assistant coach at San Antonio from 2014. And she remains the only woman to take charge of an NBA team during a regular season game when, in 2020, she stepped in as Popovich was ejected from a game against the Lakers.
msh/rm (AFP, AP, Reuters)
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