THE MODERATOR: We're joined with nine honorees of the 2023 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class. Introducing Gene Bess.
GENE BESS: I was honored to stay in the same community for 50 years. And if you understood that, you'd know that was a challenge and probably the greatest feat that I did in all my coaching. Pretty tough to stay in a little area for 50 years and really stay there.
But I enjoyed junior college. I felt that was my God-given place to do my job. I found out that I coached almost 500 players during the time I was there. And when you're working with 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids, you've got a challenge. And I really felt like that's what I was led to do.
I'm so honored to be here. I didn't have any thoughts about being in the Hall of Fame. But I'm with a bunch of great guys, and I'm just humbled and honored to be here.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Up next, introducing Pau Gasol.
PAU GASOL: Thank you. This is a moment that is honoring and humbling, as Coach was saying. Just honored to be a part of this group. We have guys here that we had very parallel careers, a lot of battles on the court. We've always been part of the same family, but now we're part of a unique family which presents us with a unique opportunity to do a special thing going forward as well.
I'm thankful for being here. Want to acknowledge everyone that's helped me throughout my career, starting with my parents that I love to death and I admire, and they helped me from the very beginning. My wife and my daughter are here that I love.
So, again, this is an incredible moment. We're thrilled and still kind of understanding how to handle and manage and digest, but truly unbelievable to be part of this class with this incredible group of people that have contributed to the game in different ways from different positions. The utmost respect for the coaches here as well.
Thank you very much for being here.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Up next, David Hixon.
DAVID HIXON: I'm really honored and humbled and, quite frankly, overwhelmed being with this group. When we had a dinner last night and there were other Hall of Famers that attended, past Hall of Famers, and to get up and speak in front of them, they were my heroes. They were my heroes when I was growing up in the game. It was sort of mind-blowing to be in front of them and talking about being inducted into this class, this wonderful class.
And I, like Coach Bess, I decided at Amherst, I had offers to leave, but I stayed 42 years because I felt we were building something special. I've been blessed for a long time in the game of basketball, and I'm certainly blessed to be with this group.
THE MODERATOR: Next up, Gene Keady.
GENE KEADY: Pleased to speak to you. Without people around you, you can't achieve this achievement. It's about us, not me, and I really appreciate being honored for this. It's the biggest honor I've ever achieved.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Next up, Dirk Nowitzki.
DIRK NOWITZKI: Thank you. Thanks for having us. Extremely excited and humbled and blessed to be here, to be part of this amazing group. And some of these guys I've played against for my whole career, and so much respect for these coaches, what they've done for our game.
So I'm humbled. And I'm so excited to go in this year with this great class.
I also want to acknowledge some of the guys that helped me get here with my parents and family and all my coaches I met when I was 15 years old. So this is not only for me, this is for everybody who has been a part of my journey.
Thank you guys very much.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Next up, Tony Parker.
TONY PARKER: Thank you. It's a huge honor. Obviously we had already six speeches. I'm not going to repeat the same thing. We had a speech last night, this morning. I'll save it for August 12th. But I'll be gladly answering your questions. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Next, Dwyane Wade.
DWYANE WADE: I haven't been back to the Final Four in 20 years. This is a great time to come back. I don't know if anybody -- I know everyone up here has seen my mom, my dad and my sister, they're going to everything with me like I'm a college kid coming out, going through this process for the first time.
This is just truly an honor, truly a blessing for my family and I. And where we come from, this doesn't happen to anyone. So we're truly honored and truly blessed to sit on this stage with so much greatness.
And as Dirk said, we look at the coaches up here, understanding that, as parents, your kids play sports, you give your kids all to coaches to be father figures and mother figures and to be leaders in your kids' lives.
Thank you to the coaches up here for the importance they play in sports. That's why we all push our kids to get into sports because of what it teaches our kids. And the coaches are the reason why. Thank you, guys.
As I'm sitting here next to Dirk and Tony, and I've been in the Finals five times, and four of them was against these two, total. And we have so much history. And I think the cool thing we can get over anything we have because they beat me and I beat them. So we're one and one versus each other.
And to have that history, to sit on this stage together, with Pau, as brothers who fought, to be our very best individually, as players, and to be very good teammates, I think the one thing up here, all these guys are team-first guys. It's so cool to walk into the Hall of Fame and to continue to be a part of amazing teams, like I did with Shaq or like I did with Bron and CB as well.
That's what you want to be a part of. You want to be part of teams that are bigger than you. That's what this team is. So thankful to be part of this family.
THE MODERATOR: Next up, Gary Blair.
GARY BLAIR: Thank you. Glad to have a lot of you out-of-towners back to my state, Texas. It's special. I grew up watching the Bob Cousys and the Bob Pettits, the Cliff Hagans, the Bill Russells, and now I get to sit up on stage with the people during my coaching career that I had opportunity to watch and what they've meant to the game and everything.
I represent five schools: Dallas South Oak Cliff, Louisiana Tech, Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas, and Texas A&M.
I'm honored to be here. My teammates, my assistant coaches have been very special to me. And I'll give you one trivia question to look up. Louisiana Tech, Leon Barmore, Sonja Hogg, Kim Mulkey and myself were the coaching staff at Louisiana Tech. It might be the only coaching staff that was together during that time, and then Sue Donohoe was our grad assistant, who is in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
But that was a special time when I started coaching at Louisiana Tech. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Next up, Juliene Brazinski Simpson.
JULIENE BRAZINSKI SIMPSON: It's an honor to represent my teammates and coaches from the '76. Big shout-out to all my teammates who are home watching.
1976 was the first time they had an opportunity for women's basketball. And I look back and I think, boy, we did not realize that that particular time the impact we would have.
What I do remember is we played in the very first women's Olympic basketball game at 9:00 in the morning. So our head coach, Billie Moore, got us up at 4 o'clock in the morning. We practiced at 5:30. And we went hard at 5:30 in the morning.
But what was funny for us, and I remember little things, one morning we all decided to wear our pajamas. We left our pajamas on, put our travel outfit on.
We got to the gym thinking she'd say, okay, we're going to have an easy practice. For the first half hour, we were all trying to hold up our pants, keep us going.
But she had such a focus on what it is we need to do, and she said to us: There are going to be many, many teams after you, but you will always be the first.
And our goal was to score the first basket in the Olympics. We played Japan in that game. The ball went up. Japan got the ball. The point guard, who I was guarding, took me to my right, and I knew the crossover was coming. She was on her way to the basket, and by the free-throw line she was no longer moving. So I fouled her.
So all of you don't know, but I committed the first foul in the Olympics. (Laughter.)
And why I say that is because they took the ball out, we end up getting, but our teammate, we wanted the United States, not only playing in the first game, but to score the very first bucket, and Lusia Harris-Stewart scored that first bucket.
And our last game of the Olympics, Billie Moore took us in. We were playing Bulgaria, and she said -- she looked at us. We were all ready to play for each other and our country, and she said, "I'm just going to say this to you: If you win a medal today, you will change the course of women's basketball, and you will not realize the impact you will do for the next 25-plus years."
And so at halftime, it was a close game, by the second half, our camaraderie, our determination, we ended up winning by 17 points and ended up with the silver medal.
And so our story is coming out. So we really appreciate being a part of this class.
They just put a book out, Andrew Maraniss put a book out called "Inaugural Ballers." If you really want to know about our team, there are some stories in there, and they're all true. It's amazing.
Thank you very much for being here. I'm very honored to be part of this, and I'm very excited to now pass the torch on to Caitlin Clark. You saw her 41 points the other day. Talking to my teammates, that's how everybody was feeling. We didn't realize how important it was, but now as we look back, we're now looking forward and grabbing people and saying take us to the next point. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Unable to join us but part of the class is Becky Hammon, part of the Class of 2023. Also Gregg Popovich is unable to join us, part of the class. Posthumously we recognize the great Jim Valvano, coach, player, broadcaster, part of the 2023 class.
Q. Pau, Dirk or Tony, you guys kind of started out the trend of players from Europe coming to the NBA and absolutely dominating. How does it feel to be a trailblazer in that aspect?
TONY PARKER: To me growing up watching the Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona really influenced me. My dad is from Chicago, huge Bulls fan, so I was a huge Michael Jordan fan. He was my idol. I had a big dream. I wanted to play in the NBA. Back in the day it was very hard because there was no European point guard in the NBA. So it was like a long journey. Had to dream big and just believe in myself.
And when I arrived in NBA, I was lucky to have a crazy coach who gambled on me to have a little point guard from France, 19 years old, to try to tell Timmy and David Robinson where to go. It was kind of crazy. But we made it.
And so it's pretty cool now to go in the Hall of Fame with Coach Pop, to become the first French player to come in the Hall of Fame. And I always took very seriously to be a good ambassador for French basketball and for European basketball.
When I looked at Dirk and Pau, we all did the same thing for our own countries. I'm very proud of that.
DIRK NOWITZKI: There were a few guys that paved the way for us in a way with Kukoc and Schrempf and some other Europeans that had great careers before us. If we came and took it to another level, then of course that's super humbling. And if we helped inspire some kids along the way, and now you see Luka and Giannis and Jokic and many, many more.
I think the game in Europe has evolved over the 20-some years we've been in the league. If we'd been just a small part of that, I think we can be super proud of that and push the game in Europe in the right direction. I think we're extremely proud and happy about that.
PAU GASOL: The same thing that Tony and Dirk have said. It's very humbling to be part of opening doors, breaking barriers, inspiring others. Timing is kind of everything in life. As Dirk said also, there were others before us that opened those doors first, and we're very thankful to them because we got to enjoy an incredible time in basketball.
And now we're seeing the game continue to grow, and now these guys are enjoying an incredible time as well, or different, probably. But, anyway, just have to be thankful for being part of history. We did what we loved, and we tried to do it to the best of our ability. And we understood what responsibility also came with that.
And luckily our game is followed around the world, and the NBA has done incredibly well. This is a prime example how the game has become so global. It's exciting. It's exciting, and we want to do our best to help the game continue to grow, but being humble and thankful for having opened up opportunities just like we had opportunities as well.
Thank you.
Q. Gene, even though you're from basketball-centric Kansas, basketball didn't enter your life the way football did. Could you explain why football was such an important sport to you, and how you transitioned to basketball?
GENE KEADY: I was better at football. And basketball was kind of the king of the state in Kansas. Kansas was good at it, Kansas State was good, Wichita State was good, and most of the junior colleges were good.
You just go along with the flow and try to do what's right for yourself to get your degree and your family, and that's why I stayed in basketball.
And it's warmer, too, by the way. So it was one of those things where I did it because I loved it, and I was pretty good at it, and I had great people around me.
Q. You mentioned this being full circle, being back at the Final Four. What have these last 20 years -- if you could sum it up, it's probably pretty difficult, but what these last years have been like?
DWYANE WADE: It's been a blur, went by so fast. Just super thankful for all the people along the journey. I think we're always the ones that has pushed forward because of our talents, but there's so many people to help us hone in on those talents, whether it's mentally or physically.
And so I'm just super thankful for these last 20 years, and I'm thankful for the years before that.
I think one of the things that's so cool, just hearing these guys speak, is I think we all fell in love with the game around the same time because of our favorite players, pretty much the same person. We think about the Dream Team, you think about Michael Jordan, think about Chicago Bulls.
Just thankful for that dream and those players that come before us that set that bar, that standard, and allow us to dream to be them.
And to sit up here on this stage, you know, there's kids out there that are going to dream to be in this seat one day. And so hopefully we represented our families and this league and the game of basketball to the best of our abilities. And I can't wait to see the next class to come up here and be able to do this as well, so on and so forth.
So just sitting in this moment the last 20 years, I was telling Pau, and I talked to my family about it, this is a very vulnerable place to be in because in vulnerability is joy, and also vulnerability is sadness.
And so we think about all the great moments, and then we think about moments of people not here to share this with us as well. And so it's just been a lot of emotions in thinking of the last 20-years-plus to get to this point.
Q. Tony, Dirk, and Pau, speaking of international players, could you three weigh in on what kind of impact you think Victor could make in his first year in the NBA?
TONY PARKER: Obviously I saw him up close because he played for my team last year. I think he can be one of those guys that can have a career like Timmy or KG or Dirk or Pau. He has all those abilities.
I think he's maybe the best talent since Bron got drafted, and he can do something very special. Then you know in the career, depends on a lot of stuff. You have to stay healthy and stuff has to go your way.
But talent-wise, I think it's something that we never saw before, as the new generation, as like all the players now, they're all shooting 3s. Dirk started all that mess. Now everybody's shooting 3s. Nobody's going inside anymore. Thank you, Dirk. But I think Victor can be very special, yes.
DIRK NOWITZKI: He's a freak, unbelievable. I mean, you always think you've seen it all during your life and your career and history of the league, and then somebody else comes along. Kevin Durant comes along, a 7'2" two guard. Now we have a 7'4" two guard. The other day I watched some highlight, and the guy was all up on him. He just stepped back and shot a running 3. I was like, This kid is unbelievable.
The talent is there. The touch is there. Obviously the length is there. This is going to be his league for a long, long time. And like Tony said, it depends a lot on is his body holding up, injuries and stuff, which we obviously don't hope. But if he stays healthy, he's going to be great for a long, long time.
PAU GASOL: Seeing highlights now, haven't seen him play up close, but looks like one of those generational players that can really impact the game and even take it to a higher level. So it's exciting.
I think to me it's just exciting to see these new kids, new talents that take this from this guy, from this other guy, and they incorporate into their game, and they dream big, and they want to be the best out there, break barriers, too.
I'm excited for the NBA. I'm excited for this kid. I think work ethic is going to be -- looks like it's in the right place. But that's how you prevent injuries, that's how you protect yourself, that's how you get strong, taking care of yourself, all that good stuff, that is important.
I'm excited to see him play. I'm excited to see what he can do.
Q. Anyone associated with the game of basketball can be chosen for this honor. With a few brief comments, why do you think you were selected to be part of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame? All nine.
JULIENE BRAZINSKI SIMPSON: We'll start with me. I think with Title IX, 50 years of celebrating women, I think we have been exposed to all the things of the past. And so I think it is a great honor, and I think it's a very appropriate time to be able to be recognized for being the very first.
GARY BLAIR: I'm a product of Title IX. I started in '72 in the women's game after Marine Corps, a number of years at Texas Tech. So I'm proud to be a member. When I had my chance to go to the men's side, I turned it down to stay with women's athletics.
It's been very good to me, and hopefully my players and coaches that are representing will give it back to the game because I really believe the game of women's basketball is about to take off even more, not just because of Caitlin Clark, but because of Dawn Staley, what she's doing, the players across the country and WNBA.
It's going to take off, and we need the media out here to embrace it, not cover it, but say I want to cover it. I want to embrace women's basketball.
And if Kobe was still with us, he would have been that ambassador that we needed to push this game to that next, next level.
DWYANE WADE: First, because of God. Second, it's not because of anything I did individually, it's because of the teams I've been a part of and had a lot of success with team. And that's the reason I started playing this sport.
Going to the Final Four with Marquette, being a part of five Finals with Miami Heat and two Olympics, winning a gold medal, all these moments, being part of a team is the reason I'm able to sit up here. And I'm representing every player I've ever played with, and I'm representing every coach and assistant coach that has ever yelled at me, pushed me, supported me, believed in me, and that's the reason I'm sitting up here, and it's because of my family and the support that they give as well. Thank you.
TONY PARKER: I agree with everything that D-Wade said. The same thing for me, team success, I was very blessed to play with great teams, with the Spurs, the national team. We won a lot of stuff, and I think it's the main reason I'm here today.
I think kids of today, they should always remember we're a team sport, we should play together. The way we played basketball with the Spurs, it was always good to great. Always trying to find the open guy and play together and care for each other.
DIRK NOWITZKI: I agree with everything. I think we're all deserving because of our contributions to the game of basketball. Not only for the NBA, but similar guys, college, international basketball that I've enjoyed a lot of years with a lot of great teams and teammates.
So, yeah, just being part of teams that had good success and good fun. So I guess that's why. Thank you.
GENE KEADY: I first want to introduce my wife Kathleen. Kathleen is one of the reasons I try to do things right.
(Applause.) She's a tough cookie from Boston who ran two taverns there. So whatever I could say would not be tough enough considering how she went through pains of having to put people through, being arrested and so on.
But anyway, I coached at all levels. I think I coached high school, coached junior college at Hutchinson, coached a small four-year school, Western Kentucky, not small, but it was a great school, Purdue and then Toronto.
I think when you coach at all different levels, you get a feel of what you need to do to motivate your players and how they should cherish their education and their families and be part of a team. And it's always -- as I said a while ago, it's not about me. It's about us.
So that was the lesson I learned was all the players that I coached were always a joy to be with, and I really appreciated the fact that they were loyal to me. Thank you.
DAVID HIXON: I'm not a household name. I'm a little bit unique here, and I think it's because we built something at Amherst College. If you don't know Amherst College, most of you don't, it's a small academic school.
I'm proud to say I went through as a student and at 24 was named the head coach. During the next 42 years, we built a family and something that was really special around the game of basketball.
Along the way, we happened to win two national championships and go to seven Final Fours. I think it's a combination of all those things that put me in this position.
PAU GASOL: You've got to go back, for me it's about first thanking my family, my parents that drove me to practice when I was a kid, when I was a teenager. Took time out of their lives after work, driving me for over an hour right after school to practice, to follow my dream. That support I love, seeing my parents in the stands as a kid. I was very blessed and very lucky to have that support, that embrace.
That turned into, when I first came to the NBA after playing in Barcelona for a few years, that my whole family moved to Memphis from Barcelona. That's commitment. That's support. That's family. That's no matter what, no matter what you do, we keep it together. And that gave me strength.
So I'm very thankful to my family. Obviously my teammates, my coaches, even my opponents, competition. At the end of the day, they make you better, too, because you want to beat them.
So it's always a motivating factor, too, as well. So, again, just you have to thank so many people. You don't get here alone by any means. So it's a great accomplishment. I hope a lot of people feel that this is part of their journey as well. Thank you.
GENE BESS: I'm wondering why I'm sitting up here to begin with, but I really probably appreciate this position more than anybody up here because I least expected being in the Hall of Fame.
But I would say this. I have played -- I've taken my team to foreign countries, and I have played all kinds of competition where I was, and I never personally went into a ball game thinking I wasn't going to win it. I lost several. But anyhow, I really liked my foreign competition.
I went with Tom Davis, I think it was in 1951. A lot of you probably know him. We went to Romania and the World University Games and won it. And I learned a lot about politics. And I actually took my team Down Under, great education for all. And then I went to South America, and we played in a couple of tournaments down there.
I can remember those people down there said, You're supposed to be King Kong in basketball. I said, You've got it mistaken. We're not -- we're a junior college. No one else could play you all.
But anyhow, we competed against them, and I really valued my experience with foreign countries. And I've had many great foreign players, if you don't mind my calling them that, and I have loved them and treasured what they had done for me and our colleagues.
Q. Dwayne, growing up, watching MJ, not only MJ, Tim Hardaway, Isiah Thomas, Kevin Garnett, all of them in the Hall of Fame. Now you're in the Hall of Fame. How more special is it to follow those footsteps?
DWYANE WADE: Yes, it's a lot of great basketball players. A lot of great basketball played in Chicago. To be a part of that list, you're naming my dad's favorite players, right?
And so you just grow up as a fan of the game. You grow up as a fan of all the Chicago players. Some are friends of mine. I grew up idolizing Quinn Richardson. Became a friend of mine.
All these guys in Chicago are doing things because you understand the community we come from. You understand how tough it is to accomplish the things you do. I'm super fans of all of them. So I'm thankful to add myself into that category of Chicago greats.
And I cannot wait to continue to see Derrick Rose and all these individuals continue to have their name associated with Chicago greats. So I take a lot of pride in it. I take a lot of pride standing for the city of Chicago, from the South Side, born and raised. And it's special. When you see me, you see Chicago all day.
Q. Dwayne, you mentioned your family. How has having a support system like that help you get to where you are now?
DWYANE WADE: Oh, I mean, my sister's around here somewhere. First of all, my sister, Tragil Wade-Johnson, if anybody knows anything about my story, you understand what she did for my life, what she did for our lives, my mom and my dad.
And so my sister's the one who held our family together until our little brother was able to get out and do his thing. I'm very thankful to have strong people in my life, people that love me beyond anything that I could think they should, and just super thankful for the people that God put in my life and the journey that He gave me.
It was a rough journey. It was a tough journey, but that's the reason I'm sitting up here today is because the journey, because of the people in that journey that did all the things they did for me.
And so super thankful for family. I'm super thankful for my beautiful wife, who is not here, and my daughter, all my kids. I've got a lot of them. I can't name them all right now.
I'm just super thankful for the support. The support means everything, and allowing me to go through all the emotions that I needed to, allowing me to make mistakes and allowing me to grow. So your family allows that, and they give you the safe space to do that.
So I would not be who I am without my family. So thank you for that question.
Q. Dirk, the love runs deep in big D. Those people love you and supported you two decades-plus. What's your message to those great Mavericks fans, and how proud are you to represent Dallas?
DIRK NOWITZKI: It's been a great journey from day one there. I didn't know what to expect when I got to Dallas. Just the people were so welcoming to me and wanted me to succeed and were cheering me on from day one.
So that meant a lot to me, that loyalty that I received from the fans there, from the community, from day one.
And I always wanted to pay that loyalty back. So that's why I ended up staying, of course, my whole 21 years there. I've been sort of part of the community there ever since. It's been a wonderful relationship with the Mavs fans and all the stuff that came to me the last few years with statue and the road, street naming, the jersey retirement.
So many amazing things that I'm so thankful for, and the community has been amazing to me and my family. That's our home for always, and I was blessed to get there 20-something years ago.
Q. Pau, you were an excellent player for many years. Then you went to the Lakers, got to play with Kobe. And it's been well documented how he lifted your game, and now here you are a Hall of Famer. Can you explain the impact that one single person had in bringing you to this point?
PAU GASOL: Obviously his name, it's constantly in my head. And I don't bring it all the time up because I can get emotional easily. So obviously he's going to be a person that I'm going to miss the most during these moments, during the jersey retirement a few weeks back, during this moment now and the ceremony in August in Springfield.
It's hard because he made me a better player. He elevated me, taught me how to be great, what it meant to work harder, what it meant to -- what it took to win at the next level. And our relationship transcended our teammate relationship.
So, again, he's meant a lot to me in my career. He's meant a lot to a lot of people that have been inspired and touched by him. But having him as a teammate for six and a half seasons and having gone through three championship runs, winning two of them was something that I'll obviously never forget. Those battles we had in the Olympics as well were quite something.
And he said he wanted to -- when he would come to the Village, he would tell me, I want you in the final. I want to beat Spain. I want to beat you. He wanted it. He was so determined. His determination was just crazy.
And obviously going to miss him a lot, but I'm always going to have him present with me at all times, and hopefully Vanessa and the girls will be able to come and be there as well.
Q. Dwayne, being a South Florida household name, staple in the community, being here at the Final Four. You have FAU. You have UM. NSU just went undefeated and won the D-II championship. What do you have to say about South Florida college basketball this year?
DWYANE WADE: It's obviously an exciting time for the fans of college basketball in the South Florida area. I have a few people who are part of my life that are from and, I mean, graduated from the U. And they are really jumping on the bandwagon as much as you can bandwagon jump. I've not seen it as much as I see it now. It's awesome.
It's awesome to see the fans down here. I ran into a lot of Miami fans, a lot of people who shared a lot of memories and moments with me. And so I just wish the best for the individual kids. I had an opportunity to play in this game, and it's special being a part of the Final Four.
So this is a part of their history. And we're all going to be witnesses to it. And so Marquette got knocked out. So it's safe to say that let's go South Florida team. Let's do that. I'm going to jump on the bandwagon, too.
Q. Dwayne, obviously you left Miami, played a little bit in Chicago and Cleveland, came back to Miami. To echo, what did it mean to come back, finish your career in Miami, to now to be here?
DWYANE WADE: I'm getting a lot of questions because Miami teams are in Final Four. Miami media is here.
It meant a lot. I never thought I would leave Miami. That was never the goal, once I got there, and we won some championships and had some success. Like Dirk, I thought my whole career would be there.
But everything happens for a reason. So I was able to go off to Chicago and play in my hometown. That's a lifelong dream for a kid from Chicago, from the city. And then my travels took me to Chicago for a quick hot second. Stuck my toe in the snow and got out of there.
I was so very thankful when I got that call. Throughout my career I never was in trade rumors. I was lucky, one of the lucky ones. But I got that call to be traded. It was amazing. I don't know why people were so mad about being traded because it felt great to be traded back to Miami.
And just to go back and be able to call my out, go back and be able to end my career at my home, the place that drafted me and it became home, it was just the perfect storm for me. And I just got a chance to go out there and see and experience something a little different.
And I realize that I take Miami's crazy over the rest of the crazy. Thankful to come back and celebrate that moment, that last dance with the fans, with that community. And to be able to be a light in the community and also in the arena, it's something that I've always taken pride in. It was the perfect storm for me to come back, end my career in Miami.
Q. Tony, you always said during your career, you're playing for your teammates, Coach Pop and the city of San Antonio. The Spurs trinity are reunited once again in the Hall of Fame. What's your message back to fans in San Antonio today?
TONY PARKER: Let's celebrate one more time. Been to the Hall of Fame the last two years with Timmy and Manu. This one, the way I look at it, maybe the last time we can really all celebrate together. That's what it felt like for my jersey retirement. And now we can do it one more time all together.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports