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Toronto Raptors veteran big man Marc Gasol recently took a break from all the hype surrounding the upcoming NBA Finals. The 34-year-old took a minute to discuss how he has recently gotten heavily involved in outreach work; specifically, with an organization that helps refugees with their migration problems.
Bruce Arthur of The Star provided an in-depth look at how Gasol immersed himself into the heart of the issue.
Article Continues BelowGasol called Proactiva Open Arms, a refugee rescue NGO, whose founder Oscar Camps was also from Barcelona. He underwent training that included psychological testing, and spent 10 nights sleeping in a normal-sized bunk on their rescue ship. They had been targeted by anti-refugee, anti-immigrant populist European governments; Gasol wanted to see what Open Arms did up close, to understand. On the third day they found flotsam, the remains of a wrecked boat, and bodies. The boy. The burned body. And a woman named Josefa, alive. Gasol was in the rescue skiff as a crew member, Savvas Kourepinis, pulled Josefa from the water.
Gasol himself shared how he came to a decision to reach out to the organization.
“When I had my daughter, I realized I’ve got to be the best version of myself that I can for her first,” he said. “And then after that it was just more. So when I saw that — I still get chills — I thought, what would a mother, a father have to go through to put their most valued thing, to go through that, to risk the most precious thing that you have in your whole life? To risk it all? And then I saw the organization went to Lesbos with nothing, and they just started pulling people out of the water. And they were from where I was from, and I called and said, ‘I want to work with you guys.’ ”
This is truly a noble act from one of the classiest players in the entire league. Kudos to Gasol here for using his influence to try and make this world a better place.
