Parker called Nowitzki – the first European-born player to win the NBA MVP award in 2007 – “the G.O.A.T” of international players. “I know I have (a microphone) and everyone does not.”Īnother thread that runs through this year’s class is how the successes of Nowitzki, Gasol and Parker influenced the influx of international players into the NBA over the past two decades. “I felt it was time to step outside the basketball talk and step into the community talk,” Wade said. Wade said he and his Miami Heat teammates speaking out in 2012 following Trayvon Martin’s shooting changed him. He also built a legacy of using his platform to speak out on a variety of issues from social justice to the transgender community. But he’s better remembered for how he became the centerpiece of building championship culture with the Miami Heat franchise, capturing three rings along the way. Wade battled with Popovich’s teams and played under him on the 2004 U.S. She is slated to give her speech Saturday night in Springfield. Her commitment was on display Friday as she skipped the news conference to coach the Aces. She’s since followed in her mentor’s footsteps, coaching the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces to a championship last season. Gasol won his two titles alongside Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles but played his final two years in the league with Popovich in San Antonio.Īnd after Hammon shined as a six-time WNBA All-Star, she became the NBA’s first full-time female assistant coach under Popovich. Parker won his four NBA titles playing under Popovich. While other hall classes have had an equal or greater collection of star power, the interconnection of this year’s group is immense. His selection also accounts for his work as a broadcaster and advocate for cancer research as the creator of the V Foundation. Olympic women’s basketball team former Purdue coach Gene Keady, a seven-time Big Ten coach of the year former Texas A&M women’s coach Gary Blair, who took two teams to the Final Four longtime coach at Division III Amherst and two-time national champion David Hixon and Gene Bess - who won 1,300 games as a junior college coach at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.įormer coach Jim Valvano, who led North Carolina State to an improbable 1983 NCAA championship, will be posthumously inducted as a contributor. Others to be inducted include the 1976 U.S. That’s what sustains us when we move through life.” “My grandkids go to school with Tim Duncan’s children so it’s pretty special in that regard,” Popovich said. He puts that group's legacy above anything he’s achieved in his coaching career. Popovich will be presented by Parker, along with former Spurs stars and hall members David Robinson, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. The class received its hall of fame rings and jackets Friday and will officially be enshrined on Saturday night in a ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts. “I just can’t get rid of him,” joked Parker, who played under Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs. Parker said being inducted alongside his coach is apropos. ![]() … I’m glad he decided this (year) would be it.” “He felt it would be inappropriate to jump the line in his mind. “He wanted to make sure his guys went in first,” Hall of Fame chairman Jerry Colangelo said of Popovich. Popovich, a five-time NBA champion, Olympic gold medal-winning coach and the league’s all-time leader in coaching wins, will join fellow NBA champions Dwyane Wade, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker, along with longtime coaching mentee Becky Hammon, as headliners of the 2023 Basketball Hall of Fame class. He can no longer run from the inevitable. On Friday, the man whose career has sprouted basketball tenacles that now span the globe was listed among a collection of basketball royalty that underscored his undeniable impact on the game. He felt others were more deserving and worthy of the sport’s highest honor. ![]() ![]() (AP) - For years, Gregg Popovich has eschewed the idea of him being worthy of inclusion in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
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