Champion Gasol announces his retirement after 19 seasons
Pau Gasol announced his retirement from professional basketball Tuesday after 19 NBA seasons, finishing a career that included six All-Star Game appearances and two NBA championships. He also led Spain to two Olympic silver medals and three EuroBasket golds.
“It’s a very difficult but thoughtful decision,” Gasol, 41, said during a news conference in Barcelona. “You have to change gears and know how to enjoy yourself. I wanted to finish playing while I’m enjoying myself and not because of an injury and while being on crutches. I’m very grateful to all of you who have contributed to making this a reality.”
Gasol, who began his professional career in Spain with FC Barcelona, was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in 2001 and then traded to the Memphis Grizzlies on draft night.
Gasol played seven seasons with the Grizzlies, making his first all-star team in 2005-06 and averaging almost 19 points per game with Memphis. After he was traded to the Lakers in 2008, he made three more all-star teams and became best known for his contributions as the second option to Kobe Bryant on the Lakers’ championship teams in 2009 and 2010. The trade was unusual: Gasol was shipped to Los Angeles, while his brother Marc, who was drafted by the Lakers in 2007 but hadn’t played for the team, went to the Grizzlies.
Both Gasol brothers thrived in the years ahead, and they will go down as perhaps the best brother tandem in NBA history. Marc made three all-star teams with the Grizzlies, and at the 2015 All- Star Game in Brooklyn, the Gasols made history as the first pair of brothers to start an All-Star Game and face each other in the opening tip-off — which Pau won.
Nets
The Brooklyn Nets remain unclear on All-Star guard Kyrie Irving’s ultimate intentions to get vaccinated and have made no decision on whether the organization will accommodate him as a part-time player this season, sources said. There had been previous optimism that Irving would get vaccinated and fulfill local governmental mandates allowing him to practice and play in New York this season, but that hope is waning.