NBA: 30 greatest international players in league history
Greatest international NBA players of all time: 6. Pau Gasol
His brother Marc may have taken most of the shine in recent years, but don’t get it twisted. For most of this century, Pau Gasol has taken opposing big men to school with an all-around arsenal that’s helped to build up an impressive list of accomplishments.
Pau originally began his career with the Memphis Grizzlies as the No. 3 overall pick back in 2001 following a draft-night trade with the Atlanta Hawks. The coming season was set to be the franchise’s first in Memphis, with Gasol dubbed as the savior to help bring credibility to the organization.
He certainly looked the part early on in winning Rookie of the Year honors, and yet the Grizzlies won just 23 games, the same amount as the year prior. That was always the narrative for Gasol during his six and a half seasons in Memphis. No matter how great his numbers were, the instability of a relatively new franchise — he had six different head coaches — was too much to overcome.
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Gasol would average 18.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.8 blocks per night for the Grizzlies. He even led them to three consecutive playoff appearances — the firsts in franchise history — but couldn’t win so much as one game in any one of them. In the midst of a second straight 22-win season, the pairing had clearly gone sour, prompting a mid-season trade to the LA Lakers.
By the time Gasol had arrived in Los Angeles midway through the 2007-08 campaign, the Lakers were in a bit of a rough patch, having struggled to compete following the trade of Shaquille O’Neal. In those three seasons, they missed the playoffs entirely and suffered two first-round exits. Kobe Bryant had demanded a trade the previous May and LA seemed destined to crumble.
It’s no coincidence that in Gasol’s first three seasons with the purple and gold, they went to three straight Finals The guy who couldn’t get it done in Memphis bucked that narrative by averaging 17.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.7 blocks per game across 18 Finals outings, helping to bring back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010.
Had Gasol remained with the Grizzlies, he would’ve joined countless other players with great stats but little behind them. In joining the Lakers, he cemented his place among the best at his position who helped restore glory to a franchise that was spiraling out of control.