The astonishing return path of Pau Gasol towards a retreat at the height of his legend

• LUCAS SÁEZ-BRAVO

  @LucasSaezBravo

Updated on Saturday, 25December2021-20: 19

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Just a few minutes ago he had spoken what he expected. He left it, how could it be otherwise. At 41, a career that exceeded even the most optimistic expectations and a last reunion with basketball in 2021 as the culmination, as the last battle won. Then, in the front row of the Liceu de Barcelona,

started to cry. Pau carried her up to the rostrum, played with her, and

calmed down. The calm cry of his daughter as a paradigm of the last episode in which the best Spanish player of all time defied destiny and defeated him. “I was able to say goodbye to this beloved sport on the courts and not let my injury remove me. I was able to fulfill the dream that my daughter would see me play », he confessed in a recent interview in this newspaper.

A year ago at this time no one could predict what would become of

. Withdrawal seemed like the hopeless option. Since March 10, 2019, his last night in the NBA, with the Bucks, with the unprecedented 17 on his back, that stress fracture in his left foot had put him in check. And the pandemic hadn't helped. There was a moment in his tortuous recovery when the doctors showed him the crossroads, like a reality check. He might "never run or jump again" if he kept up the effort. The risk was immense and in his documentary

, from Amazon, the dilemmas of those moments are palpable.

"It was a battle between my competitive self, the professional player who still had a lot to give, and my future self."

The athlete won, in an unprecedented recovery.

On April 9, against Bayern Munich, 20 years later, he dressed again as a Barça player.

Ground zero for his set-up was established at Woodside Priory School, a college preparatory school in Portola Valley, California.

Alone, with the priceless advice and guidelines of

;

then increasing the load, the rivals, two against two, three against three and, finally, simulations of matches against players who were not so easy to recruit.

A mental and physical challenge in the middle of a pandemic.

Later, the conversations with his

, the possibility of trying

Girona

, in LEB, the signing at last, the trip to Barcelona and the first training sessions with the subsidiary at the Ciutat Esportiva ...

Return to Barça, join the ambitious project of his partner

years ago

, a moving train, was not only a way station to its heralded Olympic height.

In addition to the obvious romantic side of the mission - he played for the minimum wage, about 30,000 euros - there was the competitive side, which was always the raison d'être in Pau's career.

He would end up playing 23 games (seven in Europe and 16 in the Endesa League), from less to more until he performed even above expectations, despite his controlled minutes: always below 20. He shone in the Endesa League playoffs against Joventut and Tenerife, an average rating of 18.5 in just 15 minutes.

In seven of his last nine games he surpassed ten points and finally, he lifted the ACB champion trophy in a Palau with an audience - detail from

-, after finishing a depleted Real Madrid, again with his daughter in his arms.

The cross was the Euroleague final lost in Cologne to Anadolu Efes, after a terrific personal semi-final against Armani Milan.

After all, one of the few titles that was going to be surrendered to him in his entire career.

Goodbye in Saitama

His journey in Tokyo was also bittersweet, although sports were not going to tarnish the legend, his fifth Games (and his persecuted election to the IOC Athletes Commission). He did not finish in a medal, not even Pau could have any prominence on the court, condemning almost the entire key duel against the USA Team in the quarterfinals to the bench. But at the Saitama Super Arena -there it had to be, 15 years after the world gold medal-, when he and Marc pronounced that “we got off this beautiful attraction”, an exciting circle was closed. That of the Gasols with the Spanish team that they made two-time world champion, three-time European champion and two Olympic runner-up, among many other medals and milestones.

If it had been designed by the best screenwriter in Hollywood, just a podium in Tokyo and winning the Euroleague would have been more epic.

The twilight of Pau Gasol turned out like everything before, from a movie.

He managed to return from a physical abyss that nobody expected, a last dance at 41 years old to further enlarge his legend.

Now, after the goodbye he always wanted, his other life begins, the one he postponed for his own love, that of his philanthropic work.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Pau Gasol

• Marc Gasol

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BasketballFran Guerra, the pivot who left the ghosts and his bad reputation behind: "I was one step away from throwing in the towel"

BasketballThe last and promised dance of Marc Gasol: he will play for Bàsquet Girona, the club that he presides

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