FEDEX GLOBAL LEADER SWEEPSTAKES

International Plays of the Week

Pau Gasol shows off his skills, Tony Parker goes coast-to-coast and Rudy Fernandez dunks it in the latest FedEx International Plays of the Week.Play Video

The Global Top 10 is your weekly guide to NBA global news.

1.  Gasol Puts Lakers Over the Top

Gasol Puts Lakers Over the Top After quietly dominating in the paint all season, Lakers pivot Pau Gasol capped off perhaps the best season of his career with an NBA title. The Spaniard averaged 18.6 points and 9.2 rebounds during The Finals, his biggest game coming in Game 2 in which he tallied seven of his 24 points in overtime.

Gasol also scored 23 points on a near-perfect 9-of-11 shooting in Game 3 and had his third double-double of the series with 14 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks in the series-clinching Game 5.

"We wouldn't have won it without him," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak told NBA.com. "Simple as that."

Gasol's efforts on the defensive end had as much to do with that as anything. He helped keep Dwight Howard from turning into Superman in the series, limiting the Magic big man to 15.4 points on .488 shooting, numbers well below his Playoffs and regular season averages.

"I think the thing that helped us get to this level was the improvements that he made defensively," Finals MVP Kobe Bryant said after Game 5's title-clinching win. "He did a terrific job defensively for us all year, and particularly in this series. Obviously when we got him last year, that really took us to that next step."

During the regular season, Gasol averaged 18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists and a blocks. He was voted third team All-NBA, made the West All-Star squad as a reserve and was named by FIBA Europe as the 2008 Player of the Year. In February, he was named Player of the Week twice and earned Western Conference Player of the Month. Gasol became just the fourth player in NBA history to score 10,000 career points after joining the league directly from Europe.


In your opinion, which of these international players had the best season in 2008-09?

Tim Duncan
Dirk Nowitzki
Pau Gasol
Steve Nash

Tim Duncan

SAN ANTONIO SPURS

Duncan became the only player in NBA history to be named to an All-NBA Team in each of his first 12 seasons after being named All-NBA second team last season. He also became the first player to be named to 12 consecutive NBA All-Defensive teams, breaking the record he shared with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The Virgin Islands-born Duncan is widely regarded as one of the game's best big men and most fundamentally sound players. He's won four titles during his career, capturing Finals MVP three times. Only Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal have accomplished that feat.

Duncan also won regular-season MVPs in 2001-02 and 2002-03. He is the only player in history to be named to both an All-NBA Team and an All-Defensive Team in each of his first 10 seasons. A veteran of 11 All-Star Games in 12 seasons, Duncan was named co-MVP in 2000, scoring 24 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.

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