Euroleague Basketball congratulates three of the greatest ambassadors that European basketball has ever produced – Pau Gasol, Tony Parker and Dirk Nowitzki – on being voted as new inductees to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The announcement was made over the weekend at the NCAA Final Four in Houston, USA.
The three played key roles in changing the global basketball landscape while spending the vast majority of their careers in the United States, where they each won at least one NBA championship. Only a small group of Europeans had found success in America before Nowitzki arrived in Dallas in 1998. By the time the trio finished in the NBA in 2019, the doors for Europeans had been blown wide open for stars such as Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic.
In between, Gasol, Parker and Nowitzki were stalwarts for their respective national teams and collected hauls of medals and personal accolades at the Basketball World Cup, Olympic Games and EuroBasket tournaments.
"As a former player, it is always important to see colleagues achieving new and successful goals, and I am sure that besides all the titles that Dirk, Pau and Tony have lifted, this well-deserved recognition is especially touching for what it represents," Dejan Bodiroga, Euroleague Basketball President, said. "Having three European born and raised players inducted the same year into the Hall of Fame is a fact that we all should be proud of, as it demonstrates the importance that European basketball has acquired in the global ecosystem during the last decades, raising an enormous number of talents and achieving unquestionable success."