78 Facts About Pau Gasol

Pau Gasol Saez is a Spanish former professional basketball player.

Pau Gasol was a six-time NBA All-Star and a four-time All-NBA team selection, twice on the second team and twice on the third team.

Pau Gasol was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2002 with the Memphis Grizzlies, being the first non-American player to have won that award.

Pau Gasol is regarded as one of the greatest power forwards of all time and is considered as one of the greatest European players of all time.

Pau Gasol is the older brother of former NBA player Marc Gasol.

Pau Gasol was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the third overall pick in the first round of the 2001 NBA draft, but his rights were traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies.

Pau Gasol holds the Grizzlies' franchise record for free throws made and attempted.

Internationally, Pau Gasol has won a FIBA World Cup title, three EuroBasket titles, two Olympic silver medals, and an Olympic bronze medal with the Spanish national basketball team.

Pau Gasol was named MVP of the 2006 FIBA World Cup, and MVP of the 2009 and 2015 FIBA EuroBasket.

In 2023, it was announced that Pau Gasol would be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Pau Gasol originally did not want to make sports his career.

Pau Gasol enrolled in medical school at the University of Barcelona in 1998, but left after one year as his basketball career at FC Barcelona advanced.

Pau Gasol began playing basketball as a center with his school team, Llor, and eventually signed with Cornella.

FC Barcelona was victorious in the Spanish National Cup's 2001 Final's championship game, and Pau Gasol was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

Pau Gasol led the team in scoring in his second year with the Grizzlies, and for the second year in a row, played in all 82 games.

Pau Gasol helped his team make it to the playoffs for the second time in his career, but they were eliminated in the first round and did not win a single game against the Phoenix Suns.

On February 9,2006, making his first appearance, Pau Gasol was selected to play in the 2006 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas as a reserve center for the Western Conference.

Pau Gasol was the first Spanish basketball player as well as the first Grizzlies player to ever make it to the All-Star Game.

Pau Gasol would go on to be named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, which Spain won.

Pau Gasol surpassed Shareef Abdur-Rahim as the Grizzlies' all-time leading scorer on March 7,2007, against the Toronto Raptors.

On January 24,2007, Pau Gasol recorded his second career triple-double against the hosting Utah Jazz, garnering 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists.

Pau Gasol was expected to miss the remaining three games of the Lakers' road trip after x-rays came up negative.

Pau Gasol admitted to feeling limited with the swelling in his ankle still present.

Kobe Bryant has stated that playing with Pau Gasol clicked from the start.

Pau Gasol contributed 17 points and 13 rebounds in Game 6 against the Utah Jazz to help the Lakers advance to the conference finals.

On January 2,2009, in a win against the Utah Jazz, Pau Gasol scored his 10,000th career point.

Pau Gasol finished the regular season with averages of 18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1 block per game.

Pau Gasol then won his first NBA championship ring when the Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic in the 2009 Finals.

On December 24,2009, Pau Gasol signed a 3-year extension with the Lakers worth $64.7 million.

Pau Gasol earned his third All-Star appearance as a reserve for the Western Conference and finished the regular season with averages of 18.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.7 blocks.

In Game 6 of the first round, Pau Gasol grabbed 18 rebounds and his last-second putback eliminated the Oklahoma City Thunder.

In Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, Pau Gasol scored 19 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and recorded two blocks as the Lakers repeated as champions.

Pau Gasol was named Western Conference Player of the Week.

Pau Gasol earned his third straight All-Star selection and his season averages of 19 points and 10 rebounds were nearly identical to what he had put up as a Laker the previous three seasons.

Pau Gasol's play merited him All-NBA second team honors for the first time in his career.

Pau Gasol had the worst post season performance of his career.

Pau Gasol ignored the false reports about his relationship status with his girlfriend as the cause of his poor performance and has accepted the criticism of his play as valid.

Pau Gasol was struggling after seven games under D'Antoni, averaging 10.1 points and 8.0 rebounds while shooting 38.8 percent, and he was benched in the fourth quarter in multiple games.

On November 18,2012, in a win against the Houston Rockets, Pau Gasol scored his 15,000th career point.

General manager Mitch Kupchak told Lakers season-ticket holders the team needed Pau Gasol to be more involved.

Pau Gasol suffered a concussion, forcing him to miss the next five games.

Pau Gasol had tweaked the fascia in the first half, but played through the soreness until he felt it pop when he tried to block a shot by Brook Lopez towards the end of the game.

On July 18,2014, Pau Gasol signed with the Chicago Bulls.

On December 5,2015, Pau Gasol became the 116th player to reach 1,000 regular-season games.

Pau Gasol had 13 points and 11 rebounds against the Charlotte Hornets for his ninth double-double of the season.

On February 9, Pau Gasol was named as Jimmy Butler's replacement on the 2016 Eastern Conference All-Star squad.

Pau Gasol became the 36th with 10,000 points and 10,000 rebounds.

On July 14,2016, Pau Gasol signed with the San Antonio Spurs.

Pau Gasol underwent surgery the following day to repair a fracture of his left fourth metacarpal.

On March 3,2019, Pau Gasol signed with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Pau Gasol was unable to play in the playoffs and had surgery on his injured foot on May 9,2019.

On July 25,2019, Pau Gasol signed with the Portland Trail Blazers.

On February 23,2021, Pau Gasol returned to Spain to play in Liga ACB club FC Barcelona.

On October 5,2021, Pau Gasol announced his retirement from professional basketball.

Pau Gasol has since had much success with the Spanish team, winning the 2006 FIBA World Championship and the 2009 and 2011 EuroBasket tournaments, being chosen as the Most Valuable Player in the first two; he won silver medals at the 2003 and 2007 EuroBasket, and the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

Pau Gasol was the highest-scoring player of the 2004 Summer Olympics, and Spain's flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics, replacing the injured Rafael Nadal.

In 2014, Pau Gasol was named to the All-tournament team of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Pau Gasol scored 40 points in the semifinal against France, which was half of his team's points.

On September 7,2017, in a game against Hungary, Pau Gasol became FIBA EuroBasket's all-time leading scorer, passing Tony Parker with 1,033 points.

Pau Gasol ended up at 1,183 total points scored at the EuroBasket.

Pau Gasol was a refined scorer in the post and midrange; his overall game was near-ambidextrous, making it difficult for opposing teams to defend.

Pau Gasol used a variety of midrange jumpers, hook shots, up-and-under moves, and shot fakes to score very efficiently.

Pau Gasol was a skilled passer for a big man, earning 3.2 assists per game over his career.

Pau Gasol was able to reschedule his observation for June 2010, witnessing Skaggs lead a team operating on a 13-year-old girl from Colorado with scoliosis.

Pau Gasol has a broad range of intellectual and cultural interests.

Pau Gasol has taught himself Italian and French to go along with his childhood languages of Catalan and Spanish plus English.

Pau Gasol regularly reads historical novels, plays French classical music on his keyboard, and attends concerts and operas; he is a friend of Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, and often visits him backstage after performances.

Pau Gasol posted a photo of his wedding on his Instagram account.

The couple's daughter Elisabet Gianna Pau Gasol was born on September 13,2020.

Pau Gasol's parents moved to the Memphis suburb of Germantown, Tennessee, after he signed with the Grizzlies, and enrolled his younger brothers Marc and Adria in Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis.

Pau Gasol has worked in support of infant survival and for the rights of children in other African countries as well as in campaigns against malnutrition in the Horn of Africa.

In 2010, UNICEF's Pau Gasol Project commenced in Ethiopia, to aid in the fight against infant malnutrition, which each year claims the lives of more than 2 million children, and for the right to an education.

In September 2018, after the publication of his book Bajo el aro Pau Gasol said that in spite of not being a doctor, he tries to use his public profile to help others.

In September 2019, the Pau Gasol Foundation presented the Estudio Pasos, a pioneering work in studying obesity levels in kids between 8 and 18 years of age, and which threw light on the levels of physical inactivity among children and adolescents.

At the press conference to present the study, Pau Gasol called for concrete action from governments, families and the food industry to end this problem.

Pau Gasol noted that in its 72 years of history there has never been a woman coach and advocated adopting new social norms to meet this changing period of equality and diversity.

Pau Gasol was the first player to participate in the Executive Committee of this association without previously having been in the NCAA.

Since June 2019, Pau Gasol has been a member of the Advisory Council of Spanish Sport, which is part of the Association of Spanish Sport.