Tony Parker in Trouble for Making Anti-Semitic ‘Quenelle’ Gesture

San Antonio Spurs star point guard Tony Parker was photographed doing the “quenelle” — known as some kind of reverse Nazi salute — alongside a controversial French comedian. (Teammate Boris Diaw has been caught doing the same thing.) Per the NY Daily News:

Spurs star guard Tony Parker came under fire on Sunday for his alleged use of an anti-Semitic gesture described as a “reverse” Nazi salute. Parker was asked by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to apologize.

French media outlets published a photo taken earlier this year of the French-born Parker doing the “quenelle,” as it is known, at the side of Dieudonne, a comedian and accused anti-Semite who coined the gesture, according to The Algemeiner, a New York-based newspaper that covers Jewish and Israel-related topics.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group named after the Nazi hunter, urged Parker on Sunday to “apologize for his past use of the quenelle ‘Nazi’ salute,” according to the Algemeiner.

“As a leading sports figure on both sides of the Atlantic, Parker has a special moral obligation to disassociate himself from a gesture that the government of France has identified as anti-Semitic,” Cooper said.

Parker, 31, was photographed in September and October by French media outlets making the gesture backstage at Dieudonne’s concerts.

The NBA, along with the Spurs, had no immediate comment. Parker had 22 points in nearly 36 minutes in a comeback 112-104 win over the visiting Kings on Sunday night.