Two championship rings, three NBA finals. This March 7, the Lakers will retire Pau Gasol’s number 16, elevating him to the sky of the most glamorous team in the NBA due to his exceptional career. Seven of his 18 seasons in the League were played in purple and gold, without question the brightest. Pau’s number will forever join that of 11 other legends of the franchise, all of them living basketball history, such as Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Kobe Bryant. In this interview with El Periódico, from the Prensa Ibérica group, he explains the feelings that accompany him to experience a unique night, which will have an additional sentimental component. His tribute will come at halftime in the game against the Memphis Grizzlies (04:00, early morning from Tuesday to Wednesday in Vamos#), the team where he began to write the beginning of a story that excited an entire country and changed Spanish basketball forever. making his way from Sant Boi to the top of the sport.
What does this recognition of the Lakers mean?
It is certainly a great honor and I still struggle to understand the magnitude of what it means. To be at that moment on the court where he has played so many games, retiring a shirt with my name on it, immortalizing it in some way in a franchise like the Lakers, alongside great legends, but above all joining it to Kobe was unthinkable. It is something that just imagining it already makes me tremble.
Will all the people he loves accompany him or will someone be missing?
People will be missing who have accompanied me and are no longer there. Kobe and her daughter would be very important to me. I will find them missing, although I know they will be very present. I would really like my grandparents to be there, enjoying that moment, sharing it. I hope they are seeing it wherever they are.
“That the Lakers retire my jersey is something very special, that I don’t know how to calibrate or process the dimension”
Will he get excited?
Much much. I suppose I will cry because very intense feelings will come together at that moment. This year is being a year of many emotions and recognitions, many things that I had never thought or dreamed of.
If this act were a hallmark of your career, would you say that it is far beyond what you ever dreamed of?
I have been a dreamer. But my dreams didn’t go that far. Already dreaming of playing in the NBA was something that when he explained it, people freaked out: ‘What does this say?’ There are things that our subconscious does not reach, that it is not capable of processing, and not even in the best of my dreams I could imagine it. To enter such a select group, in a franchise like the Lakers, to be the first international to receive this recognition, is something very special, that I don’t know how to calibrate or process the dimension.
His name has also just been included among the finalists for the Hall of Fame.
If I’m honest, in recognition of my NBA career, there couldn’t be anything better. That election, the withdrawal of the jersey that I am going to live with the Lakers, all these last months have been very intense on an emotional level.
“We have connected with Kobe since I arrived. We complemented each other well. That relationship on the track transcended and now continues with his family ”
If you were to segment your career, would you say that your best stage was spent with the Lakers?
It’s hard. I couldn’t tell. For me each stage has been important and each one has led me to the other. The first one at Barça was super special and super sweet. It led me to being a number 3 in the ‘draft’. Something that was unthinkable then. The Grizzlies stage was my entry into the NBA. The ‘Rookie of the Year’ award, being an All Star for the first time… My time in the national team was more than 20 years winning things that were also very important, with a very special group of players and above all, inspiring a country. How do you measure that?
What would you say was your best game in the NBA?
The game I can say without hesitation. The seventh game of the 2010 final. There is nothing more relevant in the NBA or more important than a seventh game of the League against the Celtics and with victory. It is that there is more than what as a ‘laker’ player you can aspire to in the NBA.
In that series and in that match, in which he won his second ring, he had a decisive performance: 19 points, 18 rebounds. Did he deserve to win the MVP?
Noooo! They gave it to Kobe and it was well granted. As I said when I came to the Lakers, I was there to complement what the team had. To make them better. And to give them the option to win. So it was. And for that I am very happy. And for that I am receiving many recognitions, much more important than an MVP of some finals.
What made that relationship with Kobe so special?
Since I arrived, we connected. We were two players who complemented each other very well and, fortunately, the results were also with us and that relationship on the track transcended and continues now with his family.
“I miss basketball, but not as much as I thought. In the end you feel grateful for having played so much”
If you look back and think about that boy who left Barça in 2001 to try out for the NBA, what comes to mind?
Although I was just 21 years old, I considered myself a teenager. But at the same time he was very eager. I remember that I had a conviction and a determination to do well, although I had the idea of developing a little more at Barça, because the challenge was very big. Very beast. But things were as they were and we said go ahead.
His initial goal, I imagine, was to try on and play. When did she assume that she could succeed, leave a mark and be an example?
From the beginning I began to see and hear that I could play and that I could do it very well. But have the conviction? I think that at the end of that first year in the NBA, with those duels with Garnett, and later when we played the Eurobasket, and we got that bronze, measuring ourselves against Nowitzki, Stojakovic, Divac, with established players in the NBA, who were top-level . Then you start to see that you are not that far away and if you work and follow a good line, who knows how far you can go? That was what made me think that I could do well there for a long time and be one of the best in that League.
Do you miss basketball, have you been feeling empty?
In a way I miss him but not as much as I thought. The year and a half of injuries, recovery and doubts about knowing if I would play again at 40 years old, helped me prepare for goodbye. Also the way to close it in the national team and in Barça. In the end, you feel grateful for having played for so long.
“My children have changed my life radically. If you talk about legacy, they are the essence of life”
Apart from your Foundation, you are part of the IOC Athletes Commission. Are you considering a career in the Olympic movement?
At the moment, I’m just exploring and learning how it all works. Yes, I would like to have a very big role, impact and influence in the development and growth of the Olympic movement, because in the end it is the development of sport in the world. And for me, sport is very important in society, as a vehicle for development, well-being, and training. It is something that I believe in and a lot, because I have seen it, I have lived it and I have benefited from it.
He is also spending a lot of time building a family. How have her two children, Elisabet and Max, changed her life?
Completely. In a radical way. In the end, there is nothing like having children. When you talk about the legacy, it is the essence of life, which for me is having children. The feeling that having a son or daughter causes you is unique and incomparable.
