The last time Pau Gasol entered this pavilion as a local, he spent a discreet night. It was April 2014. He played 28 minutes and scored nine points. He couldn’t prevent the Lakers from falling due to a foot injury to the Blazers, the team that would sign the Catalans without even playing a minute for the Portland side. This Tuesday, the man from Sant Boi returned to the Staples Center, now known as the Crypto Arena. He wore a smart navy blue suit and deep purple tie. He no longer wore the Lakers number 16, which he had worn for five years. From this March 7th, the number no longer belongs to him because it is hung with other sports legends. The Los Angeles team have retired Gasol’s jersey, in addition to twelve other eleven player numbers.
“I just want to say thank you for making me feel so special. It was an honor to wear that shirt,” said an emotional Gasol, who couldn’t help but cry when he finally saw his number in the stands, along with those of Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Jerry West , Charles Goodrich, Jamaal Wilkes, James Worthy, Shaquille O’Neal, Earvin Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant.
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“I would love it if Kobe was here with Gigi,” Gasol said of the star, who died in a helicopter crash with his daughter and seven other people in January 2020,” said Vanessa, Bryant’s widow. He followed his words a brief message the Lakers star dedicated at the 2018 Oscars luncheon: “The reality is I wouldn’t have won those championships without Pau. Los Angeles wouldn’t have those two championships [de 2009 y 2010] without Pau Gasol,” Bryant told EFE journalist Antonio Martín. Kobe’s two numbers, 8 and 24, are now immortalized alongside Gasols.
The center recalled this Tuesday how Bryant was a character who pushed him to excel. Gasol joined Los Angeles midway through the 2007-2008 season. In June he played his first NBA Finals. But he was surpassed by the physical strength of the Celtics, who delivered a caning in Game 6. That same summer, Gasol and Bryant met in the final of the Beijing Games. The Americans took the gold in a 107-118 game. At the turn of the summer, Kobe brought the medal to the Lakers locker room. She wanted Gasol to see her. “You lost to the Celtics, you lost to us, we’ll make sure it’s three straight losses for you,” Bryant told him jokingly. The Lakers went on to win back-to-back titles (they have 15). Phil Jackson, the legendary coach who was present at the Crypto tonight, has assured tonight that Gasol provided “his offensive skills” to the team, which was an attacking machine. Barcelona’s averaged 18 points per game during this period.
“I always dreamed of playing in the NBA as a kid, but never in a million years did I think this moment would come,” added the center, who hours earlier admitted he’d spent the past few days doing it to distract yourself don’t think too much about the toll. . These activities included dinner with five of his teammates from the Spanish team, whom he has known since he was a teenager: Felipe Reyes, Raúl López, Juan Carlos Navarro and José Calderón. “He’s had a very busy few days but we got a few laughs out of him,” Reyes said after the game.
Tonight, Gasol was protected by his parents Agustí and Marisa, his brothers Marc and Adriá, his wife Catherine McDonnell, their two children, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and the team’s vice president Rob Pelinka. In the stands were other Los Angeles icons including actor Adam Sandler and rock group Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
The recently unveiled shirt of Pau Gasol hangs above the stands of the Crypto.Phillip Kim Arena (EFE)
The ceremony came at halftime of regular season play between the Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies, a team for which Gasol played six seasons and in which he achieved one of his first milestones in the United States, being named Rookie of the Year in 2002, the first non-American to do it. But this Tuesday’s game highlighted one of the Catalan centre’s many achievements. Of the five starters on the field, only one was a foreigner, Canadian Dillon Brooks of the Grizzlies. Gasol was the second Spaniard to reach the NBA after Fernando Martín. This Tuesday, he becomes the first international player to have his jersey stripped in one of basketball’s most competitive franchises.
“It was like a movie, I’m proud to think that this was a very good movie. A lot of very good things have happened in my life,” Gasol said at a press conference before the start of the game. With the two championship rings he won in a row, he reviewed the milestones of his career in the United States. He was awarded in 2001 selected by Atlanta with the third overall draft in what he described as an “unexpected performance” that helped him break through in the tight league.
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Gasol admitted he feels responsible for helping found the Grizzlies. He landed in Memphis at the age of 19, just as the team traded Vancouver to the United States with a dismal 23-game winning record this season. And he went west years later, leaving the group with nearly 50 wins. Mike Fratello, his coach at the time, witnessed the ceremony from the stands this afternoon. His transfer is considered one of the most successful in Los Angeles. This allowed his brother Marc to reach Memphis, whose jersey was also retired after a successful 10-year career and a championship with Toronto. The void opened by the Gasols is undeniable. There are currently six Spaniards in the NBA. One of them, Santi Aldama, scored 11 points for Memphis tonight.
This Tuesday, Gasol was also talked about outside of sport. “He’s an angel on earth,” said Lakers coach Darvin Ham. “He’s a pleasure to talk to because you can talk about things that are happening in the world, not just in basketball,” added the coach, who is hoping to salvage the season without the team’s star, LeBron James. The Lakers, who won tonight, also highlighted the humanitarian profile of Gasol, who co-chairs the Gasol Foundation against childhood obesity with Marc. On the same pitch where he triumphed years ago, the former player promised to keep fighting. “To whom much is given, much is demanded. And I will continue to spend my life influencing others and making a difference. To inspire and contribute to make this world a better and healthier place” concluded the athlete on a special evening for Spanish sport
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