Gregg Popovich, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade into Hall of Fame

Tony Parker and Pau Gasol played for him. Becky Hammon coached alongside him. Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade waged battles against him.

He is San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

And he, finally, is a Hall of Famer.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame made it official Saturday, with three of the NBA's all-time international greats — Nowitzki, Parker and Gasol — joining Wade, Hammon and Popovich as the headliners of the 2023 class that will be enshrined on Aug. 11 and 12 at ceremonies in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

«This is basketball heaven,» Wade said on the ESPN telecast of the announcement in Houston.

Also getting the Hall's call: former North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano, the 1976 U.S. Olympic women's basketball team, former Purdue coach Gene Keady, former Texas A&M women's coach Gary Blair, longtime coach at Division III Amherst David Hixon, and Gene Bess — who won 1,300 games as a junior college coach at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Hall of Fame chairman Jerry Colangelo told the new members about the happy news earlier this week, most of them joined Colangelo and other Hall of Famers on Friday for a welcome dinner of sorts, then on Saturday took their first public bows as basketball royalty.

«This class not only represents all levels of basketball — it represents truly, in every regard, what the game is all about and where it is,» Colangelo told The Associated Press. «I mean, think about the candidates. There's the countries that are represented, Germany and Spain and France. It shows how far the game has come and where it is today. I think maybe it's the most unique class, I'd say, of all time, and that covers a lot of territory. It stands by itself as in its