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From Barcelona to America and beyond, the career of Pau Gasol stretched far and wide across the basketball globe. On Wednesday, he announced that he has likely reached the conclusion of his basketball odyssey as a player, preparing for his transition into a coaching role with the Portland Trail Blazers. Of course, the Gasol name has not reached the end of its line: Marc Gasol, Pau's younger brother by four and a half years, still retains a starting role with the Toronto Raptors.
As Pau bids adieu to his time on the floor, we take a look back at the seminal trade in both men's careers.
The date was Feb. 1, 2008, and the Memphis Grizzlies needed a shake-up. Despite six and a half seasons of superb play by Gasol, who was a one-time All-Star and NBA Rookie of the Year as a member of the franchise, the organization decided to flip him to the Los Angeles Lakers, who were in search of another star to put alongside Kobe Bryant on their quest for NBA glory. Los Angeles dealt a package of players to the Grizzlies, with one of those youngsters being a second-round selection (48th overall) that the club had nabbed in the 2007 Draft — Marc Gasol.
From the onset of the 2008-09 season, the Grizzlies' newest Gasol took the spot of the elder Gasol. It's unlikely that a franchise in a “win now” position such as the Lakers would have been willing to provide Marc with as much playing time as a rebuilding Grizzlies squad did. So while Pau traveled west and won NBA titles in each of his first two full seasons as a member of the Lakers, Marc was gaining the priceless experience of reps on an NBA floor. For LA, it was a coup of a deal, and for Memphis, they inherited a decade of another star center.
The two rings and three All-Stars appearances that Pau collected with the Lakers have put him in conversation for the Hall of Fame. The raw numbers of 17 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game while shooting better than 50 percent from the floor overall tell only part of the story. In addition to his numbers put up in the NBA, he was a star for the Spanish national team, something that he eventually shared with his brother Marc.
It was only at last year's NBA Trade Deadline that Grizzlies fans knew for the first time since mid-2001 what it felt like for their roster to be Gasol-less. In a deal that sent Marc to Toronto, he completed his own journey to the top of the basketball mountain. For Memphis, their two decades of Gasol have defined the franchise, and for the myriad teams that have had Pau's services over the year, the momentous nature of the 2008 deal still reverberates. While many of the other names and Draft assets have gone by the wayside, the historic Gasol-for-Gasol swap is the rare trade that worked for both franchises in the long run.
Even as Pau's borderline Hall of Fame career comes to a close, Marc's rages on. It will be a family basketball journey that reaches into its fourth decade, one with the indelible footnote of when brother was dealt for brother.
