Pau Gasol had an incredible 18-year career in the NBA.
He spent time with the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, and Milwaukee Bucks before recently announcing his retirement from basketball.
Gasol was one of the best big men of his era.
He had a dominating inside out game that made him incredibly versatile and difficult to guard.
Despite never really being the player that could lead a team on his own, Gasol was one of the top second options of the 2010s during his prime.
He finished his NBA career as a six-time All-Star, a four-time member of the All-NBA team, the 2001-2002 Rookie of the Year, a member of the All-Rookie team, and a two-time NBA champion.
Along with this, he retired with averages of 17.0 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game while maintaining a field goal percentage of 50.7 percent and a three-point percentage of 36.8 percent.
It is clear that Gasol will be a first ballot Hall of Famer when his time comes to be inducted.
Not only for what he did in the NBA, but also for what he means to basketball overseas.
Pau along with his brother Marc Gasol are two of the best basketball players to ever come from Spain.
They never pass up the opportunity to represent their country in international play.
Despite their age, even in the most recent Olympics, the Gasol brothers led Spain to a defeat in the quarterfinals at the hands of Team USA.
However, according to current FIBA rankings, Spain is ranked as the second-best national team in the world, only behind the United States.
Gasol will be having his number retired by the Lakers, so now is as good a time as ever to look at his three best seasons in the NBA.
The Lakers plan on retiring Pau Gasol’s jersey no.16. Per @ShamsCharania pic.twitter.com/DuwLCAaFtv
— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) October 5, 2021
3. 2005-06 Season
This year featured Pau really breaking onto the scene and being seen as a big name in the league.
In this season, he averaged 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.9 blocks per game.
These are incredible numbers, especially for a player who was only 25 years old.
Along with this, this was an era of isolation basketball and the big men did not handle the ball that much.
For Gasol to average 4.9 assists per game under these circumstances is truly incredible.
To go along with these numbers, this was also the season in which Gasol was selected to his first All-Star Game.
He became the first Grizzlies player ever to make an All-Star game.
#GrizzliesOTD in 2006: @paugasol became the first All-Star in franchise history, representing @memgrizz as a member of the Western Conference in the 2006 @NBAAllStar Game at @ToyotaCenter in Houston. #memgrizzmoments pic.twitter.com/gcqBv3MMUE
— Grizzlies PR (@GrizzliesPR) February 19, 2021
2. 2008-09 Season
Gasol was playing his first full season with the Lakers this year.
He did not make them regret trading for him either.
Gasol finished the year averaging 18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game.
These are rather impressive stats for Gasol considering that he was playing second fiddle to Kobe Bryant at the time.
This was a season in which Bryant attempted 20.9 shots per game.
These averages paired with the Lakers’ success were still more than enough to get Gasol into another All-Star game.
The main reason as to why this season is on the list is it was the year that Gasol finally became an NBA champion.
The Lakers took down the Orlando Magic in five games.
1. 2009-10 Season
While this is on the list for the same reason as the previous entry, it makes it no less special.
This championship came against the Boston Celtics.
Gasol averaged 18.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, and 3.4 assists this season.
Kobe took even more shots than he did in 2008-2009, so Gasol had to impact the game in ways other than scoring.
This was something that he perfected this season.
His rebounding and defense were elite and a key factor in the team’s success.
Despite being downplayed to Bryant’s sidekick by the media and fans at times, Gasol had a truly incredible career in the NBA and had an impact on the game as a whole that not many can claim.
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