(Los Angeles) Three of the best European players in history, the German Dirk Nowitzki, the Spaniard Pau Gasol and the French Tony Parker, who have won almost everything in the NBA and elsewhere, will join the Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday , supreme honor reserved for the elite of the elite.
Since the inaugural class of 1959, 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 have been honored . A solemn moment, reserved in honor of the legends of the orange ball, from Michael Jordan to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, via Bill Russell or Kobe Bryant posthumously inducted in 2021.
The time of these three immense champions from the Old Continent, having paved the way for the stars of today, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and other Luka Doncic who impose their domination in the most competitive league in the world, is finally going ringing, from the first year they are eligible, more than three years after their last NBA game.
First of their country to enter the elite, they have unstoppable arguments to put forward and, in fact, an indisputable legitimacy.
An inveterate scorer who did so much damage with that signature “fade away” shot, fired after a step or turning around to create a trajectory nearly impossible to counter, Nowitzki is the 6th leading scorer in NBA history (31 560 points in 1,522 games) in the regular season.
First European elected MVP (best player) of the regular season in 2007, the “Wunderkid” guided the Mavericks, his team always, only in their history in 2011, at the end of a final of which he was named best player , taking revenge on the sacred Heat at their expense in 2006. Enough to have his statue near the Dallas hall.
Another interior with a full offensive palette, Pau Gasol, selected in third position in the 2001 draft by Memphis, was crowned champion twice with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010, in the role of Kobe Bryant’s lieutenant. Recently, their numbers sit side by side on the ceiling of the L.A.
The Barcelonian also has one of the finest records on the international level. With the “niños de oro” (“golden boys”), he won a world championship title (2006), three Euros (2009, 2011, 2015) and was deprived of Olympic gold only by “Team USA in 2008 and then in 2012.
European champion with France in 2013, Parker can above all boast of having more champion rings than his two acolytes (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014), all won with Spurs, alongside Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili , already members of the Hall of Fame, with whom he formed one of the most formidable “Big3” in history.
First European elected MVP of a final in 2007, “TP” shone with his dazzling in the game of transition, his requirement of champion and his “teardrop”, this shot in bell which he executed almost to perfection.
He will not be the only Spurs representative on Saturday, since coach Gregg Popovich, five-time champion and NBA record holder, and Becky Hammon, who was the latter’s assistant, will also be honored. for a short interim the first female head coach of a professional men’s team.
Finally, the Basketball Hall of Fame will also welcome Dwyane Wade, triple champion with the Miami Heat (2006, 2012, 2013), the only American among the four former finalists.
The United States in the minority on a vintage of Hall of Fame? Unheard of, the result of the internationalization of the NBA, which has continued to open up to the world for several decades, welcoming talents from all countries, whose best elements no longer come to play extras, but to reap the laurels.
As such, Nowitzki, Gasol and Parker are pioneers, more likely than the Croatian Tony Kukoc for example, yet three times champion with Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the 1990s. Because by being so preponderant in the success of their teams over almost two decades, they embodied this change of era and landscape over time.
