• Narration This is how we live the return of Pau Gasol

  • Euroleague Qualifying

Against Bayern Munich, the least was the final 72-82.

After all,

Sarunas Jasikevicius's team

had already secured the top spot in the table with the win over Fenerbahçe.

What caught all eyes, in this case, was the long-awaited revival of

Pau Gasol

with the Barça shirt.

Not surprisingly, almost 20 years have passed since the last time he set foot in the Palau as a Barcelona player.

It was on June 18, 2001, in the second game of the ACB final playoff against Real Madrid.

His last duel with the culé team, however, he lived three days later, in Madrid, a feud in which his team initialed their status as favorite to take the title at the first time.

The then star in the making, of course, would be the MVP.

On his return,

he played 13 minutes and three seconds, scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds, committed two fouls, received one and gave an assist

.

He was concentrated from the first minute.

Such was his gesture when he carried out the formal greeting with his teammates prior to the start of the game.

His good friend

Nikola Mirotic

,

Cory Higgins

and

Pierre Oriola

, however, were not part of that group.

Jasikevicius preferred to give them rest.

Pau, on the other hand, was in a starting five that was quite a declaration of intent, with

Nick Calathes

and

Leo Westermann

together on the floor.

It was very clear that they were both going to look for him again and again.

Víctor Claver

and

Sergi Martínez

completed the line-up.

In just over a minute, the Sant Boi man did everything: he beat

Radosevic's

initial jump

, missed his first attempt to score, retaliated in the second with the assistance of Calathes and conceded three free throws to

Lucic

when he was late to the plucking.

In the stands, another very good friend,

Juan Carlos Navarro

, did not lose any detail.

Six points in four minutes

After nearly four minutes, he had his first break.

And Pau sat on the bench with six points in his bag and good feelings.

His return, four minutes from the end of the second quarter, however, failed to confirm them.

His were in tow of a rival that had its main figures in

Reynolds

(26 points, 26 PIR),

Baldwin

(18 points) and Lucic (14 points).

He was very participatory and managed to win on a couple of rebounds, but only managed to score one of two free throws after Radosevic's foul.

Hanga

, for his part, looked for him and found him when he was left alone after recovering a ball.

The effort, however, took its toll when it came to finding the basket and Bayern went into halftime with an advantage in the light (37-43).

After the break, he had the option to retaliate.

Saras started it again and Pau took the opportunity to add

a couple more points to his credit

, after assistance from Calathes, capture some more rebound and commit his second personal.

The only thing he lacked before returning to the bench was to add a cap to his list of statistics.

Reynolds, determined to make a great game, of course, did not make it easy for him.

The effort, meanwhile, took a serious toll on him.

He had been away from the slopes too long.

His coach, meanwhile,

preferred to leave him out in a final match with a very intense Bayern

.

Tiredness, sure, he took it for good.

At last he felt like a player again.

Against Real Madrid, on Sunday, at the Palau, he will very possibly have the option of continuing to add those long-awaited minutes.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports

  • Euroleague

  • Pau Gasol

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