Pau Gasol’s ideal quintet to topple the United States

War of the Worldsthe face to face between the NBA and FIBA ​​or European basketball, It has always been an attractive and recurring theme. And now it is more current than ever, with Spain as the current world champion and number one in the FIBA ​​ranking ahead of the United States, and with three European players fighting for the NBA MVP. So our colleagues from Basket News le han asked to one of the best ever players of international basketball, to Pau Gasol, which quintet would he choose to form an international team that would be capable of defeating the best possible American team.

Paul Gasol’s first three picksnow FIBA ​​Global Ambassador for the 2023 World Cup, are immediate, without hesitation. Actually, anyone in the role of European coach would call all three almost automatically: Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) and Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets). “Three amazing players who are at the top of the international level”assures Pau Gasol, that he would like complement them with “a Spanish player”.

“You need someone to play glue, who doesn’t require having as much of the ball as the other three. And the one that comes to mind is Rudy Fernández”. And he explains it: “Someone who has shown a lot and has made a key contribution to our team. (refers to the Spanish National Team) doing little things, from making key shots to stealing balls, always competing and making it very difficult for the rival. You need people like that to show up for the big moments. And Rudy has shown it and earned that recognition. I would take Rudy.”

The Real Madrid forward, who will turn 38 in April, played a fundamental role for Spain to be glued gold around the neck last summer in Berlin, at the Eurobasketand he was also part of the 2006 and 2019 world champion team, in which he served as captain after a very difficult summer personally.

For the place that remains to be assigned in this imaginary selection of Europe, Pau Gasol hesitates between two players, the Croatian Bojan Bogdanovic (Detroit Pistons) and the Finnish Lauri Markkanen (Utah Jazz). “Bogdanovic is playing really well right now, shooting really well. You always need a great shooter because of the way basketball is played now. I would hesitate between him and Markkanen, who is another great player and who has made an All-Star this year for the first time. To form a team, you don’t have to think only of the best. It’s hard to choose between the two, but I’m going to say Markkanen. His All Star recognition, the way he’s playing, his youth… I’ll give him a vote.”.

Doncic, Rudy, Antetokounmpo, Markkanen y Jokic. With such a quintet, Gasol believes that international basketball, Europe in this case, “I would have, for sure, an opportunity”. At the moment it is only a fictional game, but world basketball fans wish that one day it would be a reality.