'Michael Jordan of Tennis' - NBA icon Tony Parker compared Novak Djokovic to the basketball great

The 24-time men’s singles Grand Slam winner, Novak Djokovic is the most successful tennis player in Open Era.

NBA icon Tony Parker claimed in 2023 that Novak Djokovic can be billed as the Michael Jordan of tennis. The Serbian tennis star won three Grand Slam titles in 2023, which helped him become the most successful men’s singles player in the history of the Grand Slams. However, since then, he has failed to win a major.

However, in 2023, the former San Antonio Spurs point guard dubbed Novak Djokovic as one of the greatest athletes and lauded him for his longevity and consistency.

Parker also claimed that Djokovic is a huge basketball fan and Serbia has been performing well at the sport for years.

He told Eurosport, “Novak for me is one of the best ever, best athletes ever, in every sport. What he did for the longevity and to do it for as long as he did it, I don’t think you have a lot of athletes who did that in the history of the game.

So I have a lot of respect for him. I’ve met him a couple of times. He’s a huge basketball fan, in Serbia it’s maybe the number one sport.”

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Later, he praised the Serbian tennis star for his elite mentality. Tony Parker started that Novak Djokovic is mentally strong, and that factor has improved his game, making him one of the greats in the history of the sport.

He further added, “I love watching him play, I love his fighting spirit. That’s my favourite aspect, the mental part. Knowing Alize [Lim, a Eurosport presenter at Roland-Garros and Parker’s partner], knowing the game a little bit more, I know the mental part is a huge thing in this sport.”

Also Read: Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic? Rafael Nadal names player who was easier to face

The former basketball point guard later picked the Serbian tennis star over his former arch-nemesis, Rafael Nadal, and compared him to Michael Jordan.

He concluded, “And you have to give it to Novak; between him and Rafa, they are the best. You can definitely compare him to Michael Jordan in my sport. I have a lot of respect for him.”

Tony Parker won 4 NBA Championships: 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014 and is also one of the four players in the competition’s history with 4,000+ points & 1,000+ assists in the playoffs (the other three are Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James). Moreover, he was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2023.

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