Pau Gasol's career milestones
Relive some of the key baskets from Pau Gasol's storied NBA career.
Last summer, after his NBA playing days came to an end, he was mulling a return to the Lakers or to Barcelona as a finish to his career. Back then, the three-time Olympic medalist with Spain has been out of action for more than a year because of a foot injury. He said the coronavirus pandemic had slowed his recovery process, but that was not necessarily a bad thing.
Gasol has been trying to regain his fitness to be ready to play in his fifth Olympic Games. He said last year that he needed to be playing this season to give himself a chance of making it to Tokyo.
He was a six-time All-Star, made four All-NBA teams and keyed the Lakers’ run to The Finals from 2008-11. He made three consecutive All-Star appearances with the Lakers from 2009-11, and played in the 2006 All-Star Game as a member of the Grizzlies, where he spent the first 476 games of his career.
Legendary Moments: Pau Gasol traded to Lakers
On Feb. 1, 2008, the Grizzlies dealt Pau Gasol to the Lakers.
Throughout his career, Gasol played in 136 playoff games (122 starts) in 12 seasons and won back-to-back NBA titles with the Lakers in ’09 and ’10. In his career, Gasol played 1,226 games and averaged 17 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 3.2 apg and shot 50.7% in his career.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.