2023 Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony.

[nuraman00]

I'm finally getting to this.

Tony Parker is up first.

* Parker is the first European player to win Finals MVP.
* Parker and Popovich are the first player and coach to go in the hall of fame together. (I don't think that's true, Chris Webber and Rick Adelman went in together).

* He has two things to say about Tim Duncan, one obvious, one not obvious.

The obvious one: Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward ever.

The unobvious one: Tim Duncan has a special power with his eyes. He never talked to get the ball. He would just look at Tony Parker.

* The Argentina media didn't like Tony Parker at first, because he wasn't giving Manu the ball. Parker would say "blame Duncan, he's the one calling for all the shots."

* Ginobili has two levels of passes: The legendary ones. And the ones that go into the stands.

* Parker says that if you tell someone your dream, and they aren't laughing, then it's not a big enough dream. Always dream big.

* He wanted to be the first good European PG in the NBA.

* He thanks the Charlotte Hornets organization and Michael Jordan. He says "they say never meet your idols, but in Michael Jordan's case, it's the opposite". Jordan was one of his idols, and they have a greater relationship now, after his Hornets stint.

* He heavily recruited Michael Finley to come to the Spurs, because on the Spurs, that's what you do, win championships. Then they lost to Dallas, Finley's former team, in 2005-2006. Finley was crying afterwards.

Parker felt so bad, that his entire motivation for 2006-2007 was to get Finley a ring.

* He had a friend whose wife was 8 months pregnant, but still went to game 7 of the 2005 NBA Finals for him.

* Parker was scared when Chip Engelland changed his shot, to try and get it to be more consistent. Parker ended up making his first All-Star team that year.

* Parker's brother's favorite player is Dwayne Wade. Parker is ok with that since the Spurs were able to get one championship over Miami.

* 5 games into Parker's career, Popovich tells Parker he is going to be the starting PG.

Parker: Does Timmy know? Because he doesn't like French people.

* Parker thought that if he didn't win a gold medal with France, then his career would be meaningless. He was able to win one in in 2013. Parker says France lost to Spain and Pau Gasol too many times.

* Parker thinks he finally got Duncan's respect, when he held his own against Gary Payton, in a game.

 

[nuraman00]

Pau Gasol:

* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was also supposed to present him to the HOF, but he got sick and couldn't make it.


1976 USA Womens Basketball team (silver medal, first time womens basketball was at the Olympics):

* There were more than 1,000 people at tryouts. Some of the organizers personally funded use of facilities for the tryouts.


Gregg Popovich:

* He gives a shout out to Seattle and says to Gary Payton that Seattle should have a team.

* They accidentally cue the terminating music too early and Ahmad Rashad comes on stage. Popovich has to shoo him away and tell him he's not done, and he's waited a long time for this moment.

* O's and X's are meaningless, everyone runs the same thing. Jerry Sloan ran a pick and roll for John Stockton and Karl Malone 77 times a game, and nobody could stop it.

* He tried out for the Denver Nuggets as a 26 year old. They told him he'd look better in a suit and tie.

* On coaching his four presenters:

Players have bullshit antennas, so the best thing is to be yourself.

David Robinson: As long as I didn't take the Lord's name in vain, he was ok with me.

Tim Duncan: I wish he'd nod his head and acknowledge when I said something, once in a while.

Tony Parker: If we had social media then like we do now, I would not be able to coach him the same way. I'd be in handcuffs. I wanted him to be perfect.

Manu Ginobili: After 2 years of coaching, he said to me "this is what I do". I learned then that I had to just get out of the way.

 

[nuraman00]

Becky Hammon:

* Most people thought she was a water girl.
* She was undrafted.


Dirk Nowitzki:

* Don Nelson used to tell him "you have zero talent on defense".
* When Mark Cuban bought the team, he wanted to play Nowitzki one on one. So Nowitzki drove left and dunked on him.
* Says he and Nash had terrible haircuts when they were drafted. Nash, with his frosted tips.
* Popovich wrote him a handwritten note, after Dallas won the 2011 championship.


Dwayne Wade:

* He brought his father up to the stage, to share the final moment of his speech with him.

 

[nuraman00]

* Parker's dad is from Chicago, and his mom from The Netherlands, so he grew up with the best of both cultures.