Pau Gasol is a basketball player who plays for the San Antonio Spurs and the Spanish national team. During his career, he won many awards, including medals from the Olympic Games, World Championships and Europe.
Biography
Pau Gasol was born in July 1980 in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia. While still a schoolboy, he began to play in the basketball section. Over time, this occupation has grown into a brilliant sports career, not only for Pau, but also for his younger brother Marc, who also plays for the Spanish national team.
Already at the age of sixteen, Gasol began playing for Barcelona, one of the youth teams. Two years later, he became the winner of the prestigious youth tournament. Pau Gasol's impressive performance and impressive height (213 cm) attracted the attention of the coaches of the main Catalan team.
Career in Spain
After Gasol was transferred to the first team of Barcelona in 1998, he had to sit on the bench for a whole year. For the entire season, he played a total of just over 10 minutes. But already in the next championship, Pau Gasol spent noless than 15 minutes per game.
That season, he won the first prestigious trophy in his career - the Spanish Cup, and the coaching staff began to rely on a young, but very talented and promising center.
In his third season at Barcelona, Pau Gasol became one of the leaders of the team. He spent most of his playing time on the court, averaging 11 points and 5 rebounds per game. The 20-year-old center became the champion of Spain and was named the most valuable player in the Spanish Cup.
Moving overseas
In 2001, Pau Gasol was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA draft. However, the Spanish center in the Hawks did not have a chance to play, because he was immediately sold to another team - the Memphis Grizzlies. As the basketball player himself later admitted, he was very lucky then.
Already in his first season with the new team, Gasol quickly won a place in the starting five. In the regular season, he played 82 fights with impressive performance: on average, he scored 17.6 points per game and made 8.9 rebounds. These results earned Pau Gasol the NBA Rookie of the Year.
Two years later, the Spanish basketball player took part in the playoff series for the first time. Unfortunately, the Grizzlies were eliminated in the first round by the San Antonio Spurs.
In the 2005/2006 season, Pau Gasol became the best rebounder in his team. He also played in the NBA All-Star Game for the first time. HoweverGasol wanted to play in one of the best teams, so in 2008 he moved to the famous Los Angeles Lakers.
As part of the new team, Pau changed his playing role, retraining from center to power forward. Having quickly adapted to the new team, Gasol set about his favorite thing: he began to score a lot of balls and make a large number of rebounds both near his own and near someone else's basket.
In the 2008/2009 season, he again took part in the NBA All-Star Game, and also tried on the championship ring of the National Basketball League. A year later, Pau repeated this achievement. Gasol played with the Lakers until 2014.
In July, the Spanish basketball player as a free agent moved to the Chicago Bulls. As part of the Bulls, he overcame the milestone of 1,000 fights in the NBA. During his two seasons with the team, Pau Gasol was named to the NBA All-Star Game twice.
In July 2016, the Spanish power forward signed a two-year contract with the San Antonio Spurs. With the Spurs, he set a new milestone by scoring 20,000 points, becoming only the second player from Europe to do so.
Spain career
Pau Gasol was first called up to the national team in 1998. Then he became the champion of Europe as part of the junior team. A year later, he repeated this achievement at the continental championship for 19-year-old players.
In 2001, Pau Gasol competed in the European Championship for the first time and becamebronze medalist. Two years later, he won the silver medal at the same tournament.
The first serious success and world fame came to the basketball player in 2006. At the World Cup in Japan, the Spanish team became the best, and Pau Gasol was recognized as the most valuable player in the championship. In addition to these achievements, the basketball player is a three-time European champion.
In 2008, he took part in the Beijing Olympic Games, where he won silver medals with his team. From the next Olympics, Pau Gasol also did not leave without awards. In 2012 in London, he won a silver medal, and in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro - a bronze medal.
