From Lisbon to Saitama The goodbye of the Gasols and the end of the most incredible history of Spanish basketball
Goodbye to the Gasols "We got off this beautiful attraction"
Chronicle USA frustrates Spain again
Until the kitchen Abrupt end of a magical era
When Spain woke up,
Pau was
no longer there.
The example remains, the foundation of those 11 podiums in 15 summers with the national team; a personal and professional ethic that was honed in parallel to the successes and explains the longevity without which the legend would not be. The boy who, in 2002, at the Indianapolis World Cup, said goodbye to several journalists with an irreproducible phrase 19 years later, however playful, has nothing to do with the man who left the pavilion this Tuesday with aristocratic bearing. The initiatory Pau Gasol, for example in 2003, wore a black tank top on a night out to, according to his teammates, show off nascent muscles. Gasol heading for posterity, let's say 2011 as an example, already thirty years old, he continued working in the hotel gym, alone with his physiotherapist, good night, while the rest were already playing ping-pong.From showing off to perseverance, conquering the world.
When he took his first break from the national team in 2005, he came as a commentator and stayed at the same hotel as the team. He participated in the games of the day and the early morning parties, to the vigilance of the coach,
Mario Pesquera.
When he took his second leave of absence in 2010, he arrived for the quarter-final match and stayed on his own. When Spain lost,
La Sexta
, where he commented on the matches, released him from continuing in Turkey, but Pau wanted to stay with the team to shelter him in those bad hours in which
Sergio Scariolo
was saved
.
Neither on nor off the field was there a lesson for Pau to learn.
It was not always as he will be remembered.
Two decades ago, advanced men such as
Jorge Garbajosa
and
Alfonso Reyes
, now presidents of the Basketball Federation and the players' union, generated suspicions as individualists.
It also unleashed discomfort as all attention was redirected.
But Pau soon became completely collective, with an irrevocable inflection after the 2006 world gold, in Saitama, where yesterday, and the group understood that a special being deserves exclusivity - not to be confused with privileges.
The gear clicked and so was eternity.
Pau Gasol, at the Eurobasket 2001.EPA
After the 2003 final,
Moncho López
, the coach, admitted to two journalists: "We have to assume that, from now on, for the Games we will have to qualify without Pau." It was the aforementioned who in the twilight, at the age of 35, a prodigious commitment, enlisted first for the Eurobasket in 2015 and perhaps left his best game: 40 points and 11 rebounds against France, host protected by 26,922 spectators. A bestiality that was worth qualifying for the Rio Games. Pau added his third Olympic metal, bronze. And if he has survived the injury in 2019, imposing two years of comeback, it was because of the dream of this last dance in Tokyo. With him, we rest in peace.
This Wednesday morning,
a chronicler of the first years of the national team, a stranger since 2008
, was crossing
Madrid's Plaza de Prosperidad
. Wrapped in a national team polo shirt, he was walking his dog. To many something broke yesterday.
Time ends up catching up with Pau, after he denies logic. Among them, an
infallible one
: being a star in the NBA is repelled by attachment to the national team. Only four summers was not Pau; in 2019, physically broken. And that championship was world gold, a title for another future, why not.
Tony Parker
or
Dirk Nowitzki
, two players of his international rank and whose contribution to his national team is praised, signed 11 championships. Pau, 15. As many as
Felipe Reyes,
and one less than
Juan Carlos Navarro
, loyalty progidios too, with whom he shared double junior gold, European in 1998 and world championship in 1999, and the first maturation podium, European bronze in 2001. If they had only been teammates, they would have collided.
They are
#LaFamilia
.
Gasol's word: "We are a unit. We live and die together. It is the key to our success."
Top scorer
The era needed everyone, and they worked wonders, but it would not have been without Pau, the all-time top scorer (3,656 points).
Over anyone will remain, because no one else remains.
And it is well to verify that he owes (us) nothing.
On the contrary.
If
José Luis Sáez
, as president of the Federation, achieved ministerial tinsel;
yes
Pepu Hernández
, a gold selector, he gained fame for a future as a politician; if several representatives made a fortune; if in the fans pride became chronic; If we journalists knew the world, it was at their mercy. Of those who were, he and a handful of journalists barely resisted. Neither technicians, nor assistants, nor federation, nor players. Existence, for better or for worse, changes your place in 20 years. Except for Pau, perennial to prove unique, beyond its borders.
With 1:59 to go before the United States, this Tuesday, the television director left the track and looked for the face of the unemployed person. When the game ended, he chased it again, to review the farewell hugs to a world idol, the same one that at 4:38 am on June 15, 2009 in Spain, thundered in 215 countries and 42 languages: "The Lakers, NBA champions, with
Kobe Bryant
and Pau Gasol". His father summed up: "Son, you bastard, the one you have bundled up", while his mother put order in that Orlando dressing room and captured the moment with her pink camera, Pau received the telephone congratulations from his brother
Marc
and little
Adrià
He passed Kobe's affections in the hallways of the pavilion.
A photo was taken with eight Spanish journalists, generosity in return.
In the United States they ask me: 'Where did you come from?', And I answer them: 'From my mother, from my father, from Barcelona, from Spain'
Pau, in 2009
That ring - there would be a second - accelerated an international projection that, mixed with glories and persistence, leaves him in history hand in hand with
Rafa Nadal
, his intimate. He was also solicitous to save his compadre Navarro from the clutches of
Dusko Ivanovic;
receptive to
Fernando Alonso
on vacation in the United States, to
Ferran Adriá
on a promotional visit, together with
Plácido Domingo
in the dressing room, as a guide for the Kings, for Madrid when the Games were being played or holding the Spanish flag at the 2012 Olympic inauguration.
In turbulent political times, he said: "In the United States they ask me: 'Where did you come from?', And I answer them: 'From my mother, from my father, from Barcelona, from Spain'".
To
Marisa
, with his 1.87, and
Agustí
, with his 1.95, he owes a genetics and more: "Denying ostentation is a family inheritance", in the words of the first-born, who also has to thank Spanish basketball.
In a reciprocal relationship, he fell ill with endless hunger, dominated a continent (three golds: 2009, 2011 and 2015) and challenged the empire.
Pau, with the ring in 2009.
The afternoon before his debut with the Lakers, on February 4, 2008, at the Ritz-Carlton in New York, with a smile like never before, he summarized: "It will be nice to feel in the NBA, with the Lakers, what I feel every summer with Spain ". 24 hours later, after his debut, the informative signs that ran along the walls of Times Square, the heart of the universe, read: "Pau Gasol, with 24 points in his debut, helps the Lakers beat the Nets in the worst Kobe Bryant touchdown (6) ". The following news alluded to a certain
Obama
, in his first step towards the White House.
That height reached the strip of Sant Boi (1980), a medical student, even first; champion of the ACB at age 20, and at 40; chosen number three in
the
2001
draft
, the highest position for a foreigner until then; six-time All-Star, including the opening jump with Marc Gasol (2015); about 215 million dollars in salary, between Grizzlies, Lakers, Bulls, Spurs, Bucks and Blazers, in 18 seasons ... And, above all, owner of that unprecedented devotion of 2012, when after concluding the Olympic final, the second in gilded silver, he attracted the champions to the bench to console him. A pilgrimage that included
Harden
,
Kevin Durant
,
LeBron James, Westbrook
or Kobe Bryant, so present in the memory.
Elisabet Gianna
named her daughter Pau, who will be one year old on September 13, as Gianna was Kobe's daughter, who died in a helicopter accident with her father. Now in Tokyo, the day that
Biles
broke - or healed - his soul, there was no lack of consolation from Pau, who has lavished on gestures like this, to confirm that the human will always come first.
There remains the example in the broadest sense and the regret of not having defeated, except in a minor game at the 2002 World Cup, for fifth place, the United States.
The best chance was far away.
It was at the 2004 Games. The next best is dated 2014, at the World Cup.
If none came together, the responsibility corresponds to whoever chose the coach wrongly.
The finals of 2008 and 2012 are indelible;
this Tuesday it was only time to say goodbye.
Clinging to the strictest objectivity, one can only add: it was fortunate, it was a pleasure, it was a privilege.
Living like this was a dream.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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