2023 Basketball Hall of Fame: Tony Parker's tenacity extended Spurs' title window and made him unstoppable

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will formally welcome its Class of 2023 on Saturday. This week, Yahoo Sports is highlighting notable names in this class, leading up to the big ceremony.

Tony Parker is Belgian-born and French-raised. He is 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds. You cannot classify him as a brutish athlete or an elite shooter. He was certainly not a great defender. He vexed teammates. He ended his 18-year NBA career short of 20,000 points and recorded almost 1,500 fewer assists than Andre Miller.

Yet, Parker will be inducted Saturday into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

In a span of several months in 2007, Parker released a hip-hop album, captured a Finals MVP award and married Eva Longoria, the star of that year's top-rated television drama, "Desperate Housewives." He was on top of the world, and 16 years later we hold little to no discussion of Parker's historical place in the NBA.

Tim Duncan was the bedrock on which the San Antonio Spurs dynasty was built. Manu Ginóbili was a fan favorite for both his free-styling brand of basketball and unselfish embrace of a tertiary role. Parker is five years younger than both, but we treat him like the middle child of the winningest trio in league history. We should talk more about how vital his ascent was to sustaining greatness longer than other teams ever did.

Parker was the best young player in France's top basketball league as an 18-year-old in 2001, but the only two players previously drafted from the country were in the midst of struggling to crack an NBA rotation. He got worked by 35-year-old Spurs scout Lance Blanks in his first draft workout. Sam Presti and R.C. Buford, then a video coordinator and assistant general manager, convinced coach Gregg Popovich to give Parker a second chance, and San Antonio drafted him 28th overall — between Jamaal Tinsley and Trenton Hassell.

Duncan gave Parker the silent treatment throughout his rookie season, declaring, "We'll never win a title with a European point guard," and Popovich's treatment of him "bordered on abuse," Parker wrote in his autobiography, "Beyond All of My Dreams." He was "cooked by every point guard" and often benched in favor of Speedy Claxton on San Antonio's run to the 2003 title, then-teammate Stephen Jackson has said.

The Spurs offered Parker's job to Jason Kidd the following summer. He easily could have turned his back on San Antonio, but he stayed and spent the next decade improving. Parker was a bona fide building block by 2005, earning his team's trust as a table-setter and becoming a two-time NBA champion at age 22.

"I want to apologize for all the physical and mental abuse I gave you the whole time you were here," Popovich joked during Parker's jersey retirement ceremony. "I've been wanting to say that for a long time.

"But the truth is, from my perspective personally, I've been the luckiest guy in the world to see you from age 19 to this point — from a young kid who we just gave the ball to and said, 'OK, you're going to run the show,' and pretty soon we're going to be there when you enter the Hall of Fame. That's pretty amazing."

Parker made his first All-Star appearance in 2006 and captured Finals MVP honors in 2007, averaging a series-high 24.5 points on 56.8% shooting in a sweep of 22-year-old LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers.

Even then, most everyone believed Duncan deserved Finals MVP, and the following season, Parker was left off the All-Star team, finishing seventh in the voting among Western Conference guards — behind Ginóbili.

So, Parker returned a better player again for the 2008-09 season, registering career highs (at the time) of 22 points and 6.9 assists a game. He made his first All-NBA roster, joining Chauncey Billups on the third team. In eight seasons, Parker had transformed himself into the top scoring and playmaking option on a perennial 50-win team that boasted an all-time great and a third All-NBA talent, and he was far from done improving.

Still, the Spurs considered trading him as their championship window was waning. Except, as Duncan and Ginóbili aged into their mid-30s, Parker established himself as one of the game's most unstoppable stars, extending their viability long enough for Kawhi Leonard to become a contributor. Parker spun and sliced into the lane at will, sinking his signature teardrop floater and developing an elite short mid-range jumper.

From 2010-14, Parker earned three All-NBA second-team spots and twice finished top-six in the MVP race. Chris Paul was the only point guard to finish ahead of him in either vote. There was a time at the onset of the position's defining era when you could make the argument Parker was the best point guard alive.

Meanwhile, the Spurs captured the West's No. 1 seed each year, winning three-quarters of their games and reaching back-to-back Finals against the mighty Miami Heat. They fell a Ray Allen miracle short of the 2013 title and returned with a vengeance the following year, winning the fourth championship of Parker's tenure in 2014. As the sun set on their window, long after Parker proved everyone wrong, including Popovich and Duncan, a European point guard ran the show for the most well-oiled offense the game has ever produced.

Around the same time, Parker led France to a silver medal in the 2011 EuroBasket and gold in 2013, becoming the tournament's all-time leading scorer until fellow Hall of Fame Class of 2023 member Pau Gasol surpassed him in 2017. By then, Parker had aged into his mid-30s, although he still ran the point guard for consecutive 60-win teams 16 years into his career. Injuries finally took their toll on his shifty legs, and the one thing we can excuse forgetting about him is the final season he spent on the Charlotte Hornets.

The rest, though, should be remembered forever and will be embronzed in Springfield on Saturday.