Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant formed a terrific duo in Los Angeles, helping the Lakers to win their 15th and 16th NBA championships more than a decade ago. Kobe had tried to lead the Purple and Gold to the promised land again after winning three straight titles with Shaquille O’Neal from 2000 through 2002.
When Gasol was traded from the Memphis Grizzlies in that move that sent Kwame Brown to Tennessee, Kobe was really excited to have a teammate that could help him become an NBA champion again.
Recently, the Spanish big man joined ‘The Old Man and the Three’ podcast with JJ Redick and Tommy Alter to discuss a variety of topics, including his first meeting with Kobe as a Laker. Gasol, who finished his career with Barcelona in Spain, revealed that Kobe was happy to have him on the team, but making it clear they would compete for one thing and one thing only: the NBA championship.
“From the very beginning he’s like, ‘Look, I’m very happy that you’re here. Let’s acknowledge that. I’m very excited you’re here, but now let’s go f***ing win a title. Let’s go win a title. Let’s go win this thing.'”
Pau also said that Kobe had seen him in Memphis and knew he was hungry to win, just like the Black Mamba. It was a great matchup from the get-go and it paid off for the Lakers, who went to play in three straight NBA Finals with this duo.
“‘I know you’re ready,'” Gasol remembered Bryant telling him. “‘You have gone through your struggles in Memphis. Now, this is it. This is our opportunity. We gotta go seize it. We gotta go after it.'”
Even though they lost in their first trip to the big series, they worked hard and returned to the Finals, beating the Orlando Magic in 2009 and the Boston Celtics in 2010, taking revenge from that 2008 Finals they lost in six games.
These two were an incredible duo and even though things started going wrong for the Lakers in 2011, the Kobe-Gasol tandem did enough damage to be considered one of the best partnerships in franchise history. Kobe knew he got a terrific teammate when the Purple and Gold traded for Pau and didn’t miss the chance to make history with the Spaniard.
