He is a basketball legend, who signed his first license in Fécamp, in Seine-Maritime, when he was only ten years old. Three decades later, Tony Parker is a four-time NBA champion and a finalist to join the American Basketball League Hall of Fame. Eternal recognition that would allow him to enter a little more in the pantheon of world sport.
It is a name that cannot escape the French, or basketball fans around the world. Tony Parker, joined the NBA in 2001, at the age of 19. It is added to the San Antonio spurs, the iconic US Texas franchise. He then came off a full season with Paris Basket Racing but had no idea that he was going to mark the history of this sport.
More than twenty years after his debut, on Saturday, February 18, Tony Parker learns, in recognition of the work done, that he is a finalist to join the closed circle of legends: the “Hall of Fame”.
It’s simple, the “Hall of fame” brings together all the legends of American basketball. To date, almost 400 players and coaches are part of it. A handful therefore of the thousands of people who have passed through the NBA in more than 75 years of existence.
As for the election of the next “hall of famer”, it is a commission of the league that is in charge. Decision makers totally anonymouslist is not accessible, same as a votes that are deleted immediately after the final election. This year, the lucky winner will be chosen on the 1stis mars
Young Tony Parker signs his first license in Fécamp for the 1992-93 season. She is ten years old but she grew up with one basketball dad professional in the Netherlands.
So the choice of the orange ball has already been found. According to the movements of his parents and after a passage through Denain, in the north of France, he arrived at Seine-Maritime. After his year at Fécamp, TP (pronounced “teepee”) as he is nicknamed, continues a course on flexible hours in College Jean-Baptiste-de-La-Salle in Rouen. Then play Deville-les-Rouen (1993-1996), and finally a Mont-Saint-Aignan (1996-1997), where he finished the season with an average of 33 points and 8 assists. Not standard.
When the young talent arrived in the United States in 2001, he quickly worked his way into the American team’s rotation and established himself as an undisputed starter. During his twenty-year professional career, he spent seventeen with the Spurs and won four NBA championship titles (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014)the absolute holy grail.
If the French basketball standard-bearer were to join this “hall of fame”, he would join his two former partners: the Argentine Manu Ginobili and the American Tim Duncan, with whom he formed the “Big Three” that gave so much in San. Anthony
This recognition, TP already takes it from his colleagues and his American team.
Tony Parker is he has already entered the pantheon of his club, the San Antonio Spurs in November 2019. As usual, the franchise removes the player’s jersey to hang it from the ceiling of their den: the AT&T Center. In other words, once a jersey is removed, no player can wear the number 9 anymore that the French had on his back during his exploits.
So it is a new stage that presents itself for the former French international. Does it really need this distinction to mark the sport a little more? Not really, but you never stop an athlete’s competitive spirit. Hall of Fame Results or 1is April 2023for an induction ceremony scheduled for Aug. 12 in SpringfieldMassachusetts.