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Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's 2023 Class Includes Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, and Gregg Popovich

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's 2023 class includes 12 inductees: NBA players Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, and Dwyane Wade; NBA coach Gregg Popovich; college coaches Gene Bess, Gary Blair, David Hixon, and Gene Keady; WNBA player Becky Hammon; contributor Jim Valvano; the 1976 U.S. Women's Olympic Team (selected by the Women's Veterans Committee). 

The four NBA players and one NBA coach honored in tonight's ceremony all achieved the bulk of their accomplishments from the early 2000s through the mid-2010s. This article will focus on their careers, and the speeches that they gave tonight.

Tony Parker was the event's first speaker. His presenters were Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Parker said of Duncan, "To me, he is the best power forward ever." He also said that Duncan "has a special power with his eyes," noting that Duncan never asked for the ball but just looked at him, and Parker knew that it was time to deliver the ball. "Manu is the most unique player I have ever played with," Parker declared, adding that Ginobili made two kinds of passes: the legendary ones, and the ones that went to the fans in the stands. Parker joked about how much Coach Popovich loved the second kind of pass.

Parker said that if you tell people your dreams and they don't laugh then your dreams aren't big enough. That is important enough to put in bold print: If you tell people your dreams and they don't laugh then your dreams aren't big enough. Who cares about the thoughts and opinions of small people who have small dreams? Such people never accomplish anything worth noting, nor do they have the power to stop anyone from accomplishing things that are worth noting.

Parker became emotional when he talked about how much his father and mother helped him, and he also mentioned his brothers, his two young sons, and his wife. Parker called Gregg Popovich his "second dad." Parker said that he always felt that his career would not be complete without leading France to the EuroBasket title, a goal that he accomplished in 2013 after previously winning two bronze medals and one silver medal in that event.

Parker joins his teammates David Robinson, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili in the Hall of Fame. Robinson, Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker played together on the San Antonio Spurs' 2003 championship team, and the Duncan-Ginobili-Parker trio went on to win three more NBA titles (2005, 2007, 2014). Parker received the 2007 Finals MVP after the Spurs swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in LeBron James' first NBA Finals appearance. Parker spent his first 17 NBA seasons with the Spurs before closing out his career with one year in Charlotte. He finished fifth in the 2012 regular season MVP voting while making the All-NBA Team four times and making the All-Star team six times.

Parker was not a great outside shooter, rebounder, or defensive player, but his speed in the open court and his ability to finish in the paint helped him to become a very good scorer and a solid playmaker with career regular season averages of 15.5 ppg and 5.6 apg. It could be argued that Parker did not post Hall of Fame caliber individual numbers, but the counterargument is that he sacrificed individual glory to play a key role in team success; it is useful to think of both Parker and Ginobili as the opposite of flashy scorers like Gilbert Arenas, Carmelo Anthony, and James Harden who lacked both the ability to lead a team to a title and the humility to accept being the second or third option on a championship contender.

Pau Gasol's presenter was Toni Kukoc. Gasol said that Kukoc inspired him, and that when he was a child he would have never imagined that not only would he be inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame but that Kukoc would be his presenter. Gasol thanked his "friend and mentor" Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was also scheduled to be his presenter but was unable to attend the ceremony. Gasol thanked both of his parents for inspiring and motivating him, and he called his younger brother Marc "a special kid." Gasol said that his jump ball versus Marc at the 2015 NBA All-Star game was a special moment. Gasol noted that the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona "changed my life," because watching the Dream Team inspired him so much. 

Gasol mentioned that people who doubted and questioned him provided powerful motivation, including a coach during his youth days who told Gasol there was nothing he could do against the player he was guarding because "He will make the pros and you won't." 

Gasol is proud of his time with the Memphis Grizzlies, noting that he and his teammates built the foundation for what the Grizzlies have become.

Gasol praised "the person who elevated my game like no other, who taught me what it took to win at the highest level, who showed me how hard you had to work and the mentality you needed to have in order to be the best--the commitment you had to make, what it meant and what it took to be a leader: Kobe." Gasol said that the first night he joined the Lakers, Kobe Bryant made a point of introducing himself at 1 a.m. in Gasol's hotel room, delivering a simple message: "He made sure that right away, firsthand, I got the message. He said, 'Welcome to the team. I'm happy you're here. Now let's go win a championship together.' I said, 'Alright I'm in, man. I'm in. Have a good night.' That was it. No crap. Straight to the chase." Gasol added, "I wouldn't be here without you, brother. I wish more than anything that you and Gigi were here today with us. I miss you and love you." Gasol thanked Bryant's widow Vanessa for attending the ceremony, and he thanked her for letting him be an uncle to Bryant's surviving children. Bryant's untimely death alongside his daughter Gianna and seven other passengers in a helicopter crash is a tragedy not only for his family, but also a loss that creates a void that ripples out and touches people across the world. 

Gasol offered a "special thank you to Phil Jackson, a truly incredible man." He said that Jackson taught him and his Laker teammates about mindfulness.

Gasol was not only an NBA star but also a highly decorated FIBA player who led Spain to much success. He declared, "Representing my country was a big deal, and such a privilege."

Gasol thanked the media for providing a platform for the game to reach millions of people. Gasol said that transitioning to his post-playing career was "a big shock," and he praised his wife for helping him through that time. Gasol closed his speech by urging everyone to do whatever they can to help others, emphasizing that by working together we can maximize our impact on society. 

Gasol's eloquence and heartfelt messages are not surprising to anyone who has heard him speak before.

As Gasol readily acknowledged in his speech, his ascent to Hall of Fame status is directly connected to the nearly seven seasons that he spent playing alongside Kobe Bryant with the L.A. Lakers. Prior to teaming up with Bryant, Gasol won the 2002 Rookie of the Year award, earned one All-Star selection and did not make the All-NBA Team in his first eight NBA seasons, and his Memphis teams went 0-3 in playoff series--swept each time--during that period. The arc of Gasol's career changed completely after Memphis traded him to the L.A. Lakers late in the 2007-08 season. 

In the final 27 games of the 2007-08 season, Gasol shot .589 from the field for the Lakers, far exceeding his previous career-high field goal percentage of .538, as well as his .501 field goal percentage during the first 39 games of the 2007-08 season when he played for Memphis. Gasol averaged more than 3.2 offensive rebounds per game in three different seasons with the Lakers, but he averaged less than 3 offensive rebounds per game in every other season of his career. It is reasonable to suggest that the improvements in Gasol's field goal percentage and offensive rebounding as a Laker resulted from the extra defensive attention drawn by Bryant. Also--as Gasol mentioned in his speech--Bryant and Coach Jackson helped him to develop a champion's mindset. The Lakers made three straight NBA Finals appearances from 2008-2010 with Bryant leading the way and Gasol serving as an excellent second option, and they won back to back NBA titles in 2009 and 2010.

Many Lakers other than Bryant seemed satisfied after winning two championships, and the team lost in the second round of the playoffs in 2011 and 2012. Bryant's long tenure as an elite player ended after he ruptured his Achilles late in the 2013 season. Without Bryant leading the way, Gasol averaged 14.0 ppg on .481 field goal shooting as the San Antonio Spurs swept the Lakers in the first round of the 2013 playoffs. Gasol played one more season with the Lakers, but the team went just 27-55 as injuries limited Bryant to six games. Gasol signed with the Chicago Bulls in 2014, and he made the All-Star team in both of his two seasons in Chicago in addition to making the All-NBA Second Team in 2015, but his statistics never again matched the numbers he posted alongside Bryant. Gasol spent a little over two seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, and then played three games for Milwaukee before retiring after suffering a foot injury. 

Gasol's career regular season numbers are solid (17.0 ppg, 9.2 rpg, .507 FG%) but not spectacular. His career playoff series record is 13-4 with the Lakers, and 3-6 with all other teams. Gasol is a Hall of Famer primarily because of his two championship seasons with the Lakers, plus his decorated FIBA career that included three Olympic medals with Spain (two silvers, one bronze), a gold medal in the 2006 World Cup, and seven EuroBasket medals (including gold medals in 2009, 2011, and 2015). 

Gasol was a good low post scorer who could also face the basket, pass to open cutters, rebound, and block shots. He went from being a bit underrated during his Memphis seasons to being a bit overrated as a Laker due to the reluctance of some media members to give Bryant full credit for his significant role in mentoring players so that the team would be successful, and the insistence of those same media members on providing nonsensical critiques of Bryant's shot selection. 

Gregg Popovich's presenters were David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker. Popovich said that he tried to think of a word to describe this moment, and the one that fits best is "unimaginable." Popovich insisted that he was not displaying false humility and that he genuinely wondered, "What the hell am I doing here? How did this happen?" Popovich became choked up, and said that he is a "Division III guy." Popovich said that he thought about his journey to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and he concluded that there are two reasons: one is a long list of people who he thanked, and the second reason was very brief.

Popovich thanked Hank Egan, who he called a "very underrated coach." Egan coached Popovich at the Air Force Academy.

Popovich praised Dean Smith and Larry Brown as basketball "purists" who would stop practice if a player was just slightly off while doing a rocker step. Popovich said that Don Nelson was a mentor who was the opposite of Smith and Brown because he specialized in doing unorthodox things. Popovich also noted Nelson's knack for figuring out how to exploit matchups.

Popovich made some "special thank yous," starting with Jerry Colangelo for "fulfilling a lifetime dream" by hiring him to coach Team USA, and including Sean Ford, Tim Dooley, and Mike Krzyzewski for their help when Popovich coached Team USA.

Next, Popovich thanked all of his players and assistant coaches. He thanked three people who have been with him during his entire San Antonio journey: R.C. Buford, who Popovich said "should be standing right here," Will Sevening, who Popovich called "trainer of the century," and Tom James, the Spurs' p.r. director. He concluded by thanking his wife of 42 years (Erin, who passed away in 2018), his son Micky, his daughter Jill, and "the stars of the show": his grandchildren. 

The second reason involved one word: "Duh!" Popovich then shook the hands of each of his Hall of Fame presenters. The crowd reacted as if that were the end of his speech, but Popovich insisted that he was not quite done yet. Popovich described the special qualities of each of his four Hall of Fame presenters. David Robinson reluctantly accepted Popovich's cursing as long as Popovich promised to never use the lord's name in vain. Parker accepted Popovich's harsh coaching methods that, Popovich joked, would land him in jail if he used them today. Popovich appreciated that Duncan would nod his head and acknowledge what Popovich said, which made Popovich feel important. Popovich said that Ginobili's wild, uninhibited playing style taught him that sometimes the best thing that a coach can do is shut up and let his players be themselves.

Popovich minimized the importance of Xs and Os, repeatedly stating that personal relationships are what matter most: "What exists is seeing those guys and their kids." Popovich concluded, "Those relationships stay with you forever."

Popovich has coached the San Antonio Spurs to five championships (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) while winning the Coach of the Year award three times (2003, 2012, 2014) and compiling the most regular season coaching wins (1366) in NBA history. He ranks third in NBA playoff coaching wins (170), trailing only Phil Jackson (229) and Pat Riley (171). Only Jackson (11) and Red Auerbach (9) have won more NBA titles as a coach than Popovich, who is tied with Riley and John Kundla. Under Popovich's direction, the Spurs won at least 50 games in 18 straight seasons. Popovich is respected for both his tactical acumen and his ability to connect with players ranging from Hall of Famers to reserves who see little playing time. He can say that strategy does not matter and wins don't matter, but the reality is that he devoted his life to becoming a great basketball strategist who won a lot of basketball games.

Dirk Nowitzki's presenters were Jason Kidd and Steve Nash. Nowitzki said that his career was made possible by several qualities and values. He listed each important quality/value, and mentioned people who represented those qualities/values. The first quality he cited is "creativity," and Nowitzki thanked his first NBA coach Don Nelson for being "an incredible basketball mind." Another quality is "leadership." Nowitzki thanked Nash for being a "great role model," "the best teammate I ever had," and "a friend for life." Nowitzki thanked Kidd for instilling the value of "competitiveness" in him and his teammates, calling Kidd a "wonderful, wonderful all-around player" with whom he forged a "bond for life." Nowitzki said that another important quality is "respect," and he mentioned that he did not always like his Hall of Fame classmates but he always respected them. He stated that he has the "utmost respect" for Popovich, who sent a handwritten note to him after Dallas won the 2011 NBA title.

Nowitzki declared that "loyalty" is the quality "more important to me than any other," and he said that Mark Cuban embodies that quality. Nowitzki thanked Donnie Nelson for "taking risks" by recommending that the Mavericks draft him when he was a teenager. He thanked Coach Rick Carlisle for teaching him how to be detail-oriented. Nowitzki thanked Coach Avery Johnson for helping him to become more than a jump shooter. Johnson represents the value of "intensity." 

Nowitzki's teammate Michael Finley represents "professionalism." Nowitzki said, "No one can whistle a symphony" and he praised the "team spirit" in the Dallas organization. "Innovation" is represented by Holger Geschwinder, Nowitzki's personal coach and mentor who "always thought outside the box." The next quality Nowitzki mentioned is "protection," represented by his sister. Nowitzki learned "humbleness" from his parents, and he spoke a special message to them in German. "Passion" is a quality that he learned from his wife, Jess. 

Nowitzki learned "curiosity" from his three children Malaika, Max, and Morris, who he encouraged to find role models who will help them the way his role models helped him. He said that it is important to approach life as a learner and not as a person who thinks that he knows everything. Nowitzki concluded, "When you're green you grow, when you're ripe you rot."

Dwyane Wade was the final inductee. His presenter was Allen Iverson. Wade expressed his appreciation to all of the other inductees, and joked that it was "therapy" for him and Nowitzki, alluding to their battles in the 2006 and 2011 NBA Finals. Wade's first basketball memory is from when he was five years old, and he said that every time he held a basketball something came alive in him. He thanked his father for taking him to various parks to play against grown men. Wade said "the best thing about that time is what the game taught me" about how basketball connects people and also fuels your love of competition. Wade called basketball a "vessel" that changed his life and the life of his family.

Wade described in detail how he practiced Michael Jordan's famous move from the 1991 NBA Finals--immortalized by Marv Albert's famous call, "A spectacular move by Michael Jordan"--over and over while attempting to add some of Jordan's style to his game. 

Wade declared, "My beliefs have always been stronger than anyone's doubts," echoing sentiments expressed by Parker and Gasol. Wade described Iverson as a hero who is not perfect but "relatable and real." Wade said that Iverson demonstrated that "coming from nothing is not a limitation but a motivation." Wade added that he wore number three and an arm sleeve throughout his career as tributes to Iverson.

Wade thanked his coaching mentors for teaching him the value of "we versus me," stating that those lessons enabled him to win NBA championships while playing alongside Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James. Wade called his family his "lifeline," and he ended his speech by asking his father to join him on stage so that they could enter "basketball heaven" together. There was not a dry eye in the house after that moment.

The careers of Nowitzki and Wade intersected in two NBA Finals, as Wade noted in his speech. In 2006, Wade won the Finals MVP versus Nowitzki's Dallas Mavericks as the Miami Heat overcame a 2-0 deficit to win the series, 4-2. Wade averaged 34.7 ppg while shooting .468 from the field in the 2006 Finals and Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 22.8 ppg despite shooting just .390 from the field. This was the first of Wade's three NBA titles, and the last of O'Neal's four NBA titles as O'Neal won his first (and only) championship after being dealt to Miami by the L.A. Lakers. In 2011, Nowitzki won the Finals MVP while leading the Mavericks to a 4-1 triumph over the Heat in the first season after LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Wade to form a "super team."

Wade had a good rookie season in 2003-04 (16.2 ppg, 4.5 apg, 4.0 rpg), but he emerged as an All-Star in his second season and he made the All-Star team for the next 11 years. Wade made the All-NBA Team eight times, including a pair of First Team selections (2009, 2010), and he also made the All-Defensive Second Team three times. He finished in the top five in MVP voting twice, peaking at third in 2009 when he averaged a career-high 30.2 ppg to win his only scoring title. 

Wade had already established himself as a future Hall of Famer before James and Bosh joined the Heat. After the Heat's disastrous performance in the 2011 NBA Finals, Wade convinced LeBron James that in order to win a championship James had to accept the responsibility of being the best player on the team. Wade played a secondary but vital role for Miami's 2012 and 2013 championship teams. The Heat reached the Finals all four seasons that James, Wade, and Bosh played together. 

Wade never developed a reliable outside shot, and at a listed height of 6-4 he was a bit undersized for a shooting guard in a sport where height and size matter a lot, so he relied heavily on his tremendous speed, agility, and leaping ability; consequently, Wade's game declined as his athletic skills eroded, and after averaging at least 21.2 ppg in each season from 2005-2013 he averaged more than 20 ppg just once in his final six seasons. Wade's teams went 3-2 in the NBA Finals and 22-10 overall in playoff series, including 14-2 while playing alongside James. Wade averaged 22.0 ppg, 5.4 apg, and 4.7 rpg during his regular season career. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are clearly the two greatest shooting guards in NBA history, followed by Jerry West (unless one classifies West as a point guard), but an argument could be made that Wade is the top shooting guard in the next, non-Pantheon tier.

Nowitzki established himself beyond any doubt as a legend by leading the Mavericks to a championship versus a Heat team that went on to win the next two NBA titles. Nowitzki was not the first big man who could shoot from the outside--let's not forget about Bob McAdoo and Larry Bird, to name just two MVPs who stood at least 6-9 and had a great shooting touch--but as the league transitioned from inside-out play to outside-in play Nowitzki embodied the concept of the "stretch four," a player with power forward size and skills who could stretch opposing defenses by making three pointers.

Even though Nowitzki was a great shooter, it would be a mistake to ignore the other aspects of his game, most notably his rebounding prowess. He averaged at least 8.4 rpg for nine straight regular seasons, and he averaged 10.0 rpg in 145 playoff games. Spanning the 2001 and 2002 playoffs, Nowitzki had four straight postseason games with at least 30 points and at least 15 rebounds, something that had only been accomplished two other times since 1970 (both by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). In 2003, Nowitzki had at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in back to back game sevens, joining Hakeem Olajuwon, Kevin McHale, Larry Bird, Elvin Hayes, Wilt Chamberlain and Bob Pettit as the only players to accomplish that feat.

Nowitzki won the 2007 regular season MVP, and he finished in the top five in MVP balloting in 2005 and 2006 while making the All-NBA Team 12 times, including four First Team selections (2005-07, 2009). The 14-time All-Star became just the seventh player to join the elite 30,000 point club, an exclusive group that still has just eight members.

Although Mark Cuban often brags about how smart and data driven he and his Mavericks are, the reality is that for most of Nowitzki's career the franchise did not do a great job of providing him with a superior supporting cast--and when he finally had one in 2011, the Mavericks promptly dismantled it, foreshadowing how the Mavericks dismantled the 2022 team that Luka Doncic led to the Western Conference Finals. As a result, Nowitzki's career playoff series record is just 13-14. Of course, the most notable of those 14 defeats happened after the 2007 regular season during which the Mavericks posted a league-best 67-15 record: the Golden State Warriors defeated the Mavericks 4-2 in the greatest playoff upset in NBA history, a series during which Nowitzki did not shine (to put it mildly) while his former coach Don Nelson coached circles around Avery Johnson, a good coach who made the foolish decision to slow the tempo down versus the Warriors instead of playing to the strengths that enabled his team to dominate during the regular season. Nowitzki erased any memories of the 2006 Finals collapse and the 2007 first round loss with his epic performance in the 2011 NBA Finals.

Wade and Nowitzki met twice at the summit in the NBA Finals, and they both retired after the 2019 season; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver honored both of them as special selections to that season's All-Star Game.  

After 2023 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Jim Valvano was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1992, he gave his famous ESPYs  speech during which he said that every day a person should laugh, think, and be moved to tears. If you do those three things, he declared, then you have had a full day. Every time I watch the Basketball Hall of Fame ceremony, I have a full day.

Articles About Recent Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies:

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's 2022 Class Includes NBA Players Lou Hudson, Tim Hardaway, and Manu Ginobili (Class of 2022)  

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Welcomes 15 New Members and Honors Bill Russell a Second Time (Class of 2021)

Kobe Bryant Headlines the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (Class of 2020) 

The Basketball Hall of Fame Welcomes A Diverse Class of 12 Inductees (Class of 2019)

Thoughts and Observations About the 2018 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony (Class of 2018)

Labels: Basketball Hall of Fame, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, Gregg Popovich, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker

posted by David Friedman @ 11:44 PM

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