Pau Gasol’s jersey will be hung up on the rafters when the Los Angeles Lakers host the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night.
Gasol’s arrival in 2008 took a Lakers team that was mired in mediocrity to three straight Finals appearances and two championships. The trade was a fabulous move, but Jeanie Buss said it might not have happened if any news had leaked prior to its completion.
“I truly believe, had it leaked out, that there would’ve been teams in the league that would’ve tried to hijack it,” Buss told ESPN.
Teams would have definitely tried to hijack the move, as a player of Gasol’s caliber doesn’t become available all that often. Mitch Kupchak, who was the GM for the Lakers at the time, said that news regarding Gasol being available hadn’t hit the mainstream when he first heard about it. He then explained how he went about securing the deal for the Lakers.
“I remember there was something written, or a rumor that he might be available, but it wasn’t the mainstream,” Mitch Kupchak, then the Lakers general manager and now the Charlotte Hornets GM, told ESPN. “So yeah, I called up [the Grizzlies] and you can kind of tell when there’s real interest or when there’s not real interest.”
Their interest in trading Gasol was indeed real, as the Grizzles were trying to go younger and rebuild. It was a great chance for the Lakers to get the Spaniard, and Kupchak told ESPN that he presented Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace with two options.
“So one of the first things we did was, with Chris, ‘We can go two ways: We could give you players that add up to Pau’s [salary] number, or if you prefer, we have a large expiring contract in Kwame Brown, right? And we can go that direction.'”
Wallace called back and opted to make a deal involving the expiring contract of Kwame Brown. The Grizzlies ended up getting Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, two first-round picks, $3 million in cash considerations, and the draft rights to Marc Gasol, Pau’s younger brother for him, and a second-round pick.
It was viewed as daylight robbery at the time and still is by many. Pau averaged 17.7 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 3.5 APG, 0.6 SPG, and 1.4 BPG during his seven seasons with the Lakers while winning those two titles. The only saving grace for the Grizzlies was that Marc Gasol ended up being a great player for them, making multiple All-Star appearances while also winning DPOY in 2013. He would help turn the Grizzlies into a perennial playoff team but was never able to win a title for them as his older brother did for the Lakers.
Pau Gasol Spoke On His Jersey Hanging Up In The Rafters Next To Kobe Bryant’s
Gasol’s jersey retirement ceremony is sure to be special, and it is so unfortunate that his former teammate Kobe Bryant won’t be there with him. The two of them were the biggest reasons why the Lakers won those titles, and the Spaniard paid a touching tribute to Kobe during the Rising Stars game.
He recently spoke about his jersey being hung next to Bryant’s and said he still gets emotional when thinking about his former teammate. The two formed a very special bond during their time on the Lakers, and there would have been no one prouder of Gasol on his special night than Kobe.
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