Pau Gasol eyes Lakers return, taking half in with Marc

Pau Gasol is working toward what he hopes will be an NBA comeback and a situation on Spain’s Olympic team in Tokyo, the six-time All-Basic particular person and two-time NBA champion told ESPN on Wednesday.

Gasol, 40, has identified the Los Angeles Lakers as one of his dream destinations.

“There is which map and historical past there,” acknowledged Gasol, who won titles with the Lakers alongside Kobe Bryant in 2009 and 2010. “I’m not going to lie. It may maybe well presumably presumably be very particular, and now that my brother [Marc] is there, even more particular. But I’m not in a direct now to be very stressful. I fabricate not have 10 provides on the table.”

Marc Gasol, Pau’s younger brother by 4½ years, signed a two-three hundred and sixty five days, $5.25 million deal with the Lakers final month.

Pau Gasol has not regarded in a game since March 2019 and has gone by two surgical procedures since then to repair stress fractures in the navicular bone in his left foot, he told ESPN. Doctors first found the stress reaction in the autumn of 2018, when Gasol was once starting his third season with the San Antonio Spurs, he acknowledged.

Gasol and his agent honest not too lengthy in the past discussed coaching camp affords with some NBA groups, but Gasol most traditional to make more conditioning before seriously participating in talks, he acknowledged. He has been coaching in Northern California, the set apart he’s dwelling along with his companion, Catherine McDonnell, and their 3-month-extinct daughter, as he hopes to play again in the NBA as more than a glorified coach.

“I desire the different to make a contribution — to in point of fact feel wished,” Gasol acknowledged. “No longer honest to be there. That’s not who I am. I desire to revel in it, and avid gamers generally revel in taking half in.”

The Lakers’ level of curiosity in a Gasol reunion is unclear. Gasol has not performed 5-on-5 since undergoing surgical treatment, he acknowledged. He has set apart up 2-on-2 games with native avid gamers, including a extinct Stanford participant and an employee of an NBA team who spends offseasons in the Bay Discipline, Gasol acknowledged.

Gasol has arranged for workout companions to acquire weekly coronavirus sorting out and has them wear masks all the map by contact drills, he acknowledged. Between classes, he requests his workout companions remain vigilant about social distancing, wearing masks and other protective measures. Increasing beyond a pair of workout companions has been complicated all the map by the pandemic.

“Or not it is miles not the same as we stay in a bubble,” Gasol acknowledged.

Calm, elephantine-contact drills are an ideal distance from the set apart Gasol’s rehab started after the two procedures in 2019. To initiating with, he can also assign almost no weight on his foot. He had to toughen it with frequent exercises: curling his toes around a towel placed on the ground after which utilizing his toes to retract up a pen and assign it assist down several instances in a row, he acknowledged.

He stepped forward to wearing a walking boot after which to walking on soft surfaces like grass and sand.

“There were appropriate days after which laborious days the set apart you speak, ‘Is this in point of fact worth it? Maybe it be time to let trot,'” Gasol acknowledged.

The Gasol brothers were traded for every other in 2008, when the Memphis Grizzlies swapped the elder Gasol to the Lakers for a bundle — broadly derided at the time — that incorporated Marc, who was once then taking half in abroad.

Pau Gasol had tried to convince Grizzlies management to draft Marc in 2007 then, once the Lakers picked him 48th, to alternate for him. When the Grizzlies exchanged Gasols seven months later, one member of Memphis’ management team joked with Pau, “‘We in the extinguish obtained [Marc], thank you, Pau!'” the elder Gasol recalled. “I acknowledged, ‘Neatly, that is not precisely how I envisioned it.'”

The brothers discussed the set apart Marc can also signal all the map by his most modern free-agency interval.

“He had several groups that were keen,” Pau Gasol acknowledged of his brother. “What he valued most was once the different to private another championship. To play for the Lakers — it be this type of definite franchise. Or not it is the different of a lifetime, and it be very particular for us to be the predominant brothers to play for the Lakers.”

“It may maybe well presumably presumably be exceptional if it ends up taking place the set apart I will join the team at some level,” Gasol added.

Gasol has furthermore puzzled whether or not he would revel in taking half in in any fabricate of bubble atmosphere that would private him faraway from his companion and their daughter, Elisabet Gianna Gasol, whose middle name Gasol and McDonnell chose as a tribute to Bryant and his slack 13-three hundred and sixty five days-extinct daughter, Gianna.

But Gasol is made up our minds to private another shot at the NBA. He has spoken before of presumably ending his profession with FC Barcelona, the set apart he starred before coming to the US, but has consistently acknowledged he would take hang of to remain in the NBA.

After that, the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo loom. Gasol has performed for Spain’s nationwide team in four consecutive Olympics, helping it to silver medals in 2008 and 2012 and bronze in 2016. Gasol was once injured final three hundred and sixty five days when Spain won the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

“With a thought to play 5 Olympics would honest be exceptional,” Gasol acknowledged.

As soon as he retires, Gasol would have curiosity in working for an NBA team in some capacity, he acknowledged. He’s honest not ready for that yet.

“I will also like to be on an NBA roster at some level again — and perchance not too far from now,” Gasol acknowledged.