There are some phrases that deliver valued advice.
If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you. Never take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same day. If you loan someone $100 and never see them again, it probably was worth it.
And then there are some that have been just plain frightening for Bulls fans. Like, dad, meet my fiancé, Dennis Rodman. And, we can fix this; we’ll rely on free agency.
And sometimes the latter also proves prescient, which we can witness this weekend when Pau Gasol, who became one of the most prized free agents for the Bulls, will be enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
The honor goes to Gasol primarily from his brilliant international basketball career for his native Spain’s national team and two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers. But after the Bulls won a spirited competition for his amalgam of talents competing against the Spurs and Thunder, Gasol had a career renaissance in two beguiling seasons with the Bulls and helped lead the team to its last playoff series win.
Gasol was an All-Star in both his Bulls seasons, his first All-Star selections in four years, started the 2015 All-Star game opposite his brother Marc in an historic NBA first, was All-NBA, scored a career best 46 points, led the league in double-doubles and became the fourth player in league history older than 35 with multiple triple doubles in one season. He joined his former teammate and close friend Kobe Bryant in that category.
“I came to the Bulls to rejuvenate myself, reenergize myself, to be motivated again,” Gasol said early in his Bulls tenure. "I wanted to be challenged and I wanted to be in a winning situation. The time with the Bulls was fueled by the difficult time I had in L.A. the last couple of years, injuries, coaching issues, and trade rumors (part of the annulled Chris Paul deal). It fueled me.”
Gasol after leaving the Bulls in the summer of 2016 navigated a path to a hoops archipelago in San Antonio, Milwaukee and Portland before a final act back in Spain helping FC Barcelona to a Euroleague finals.
Gasol, meanwhile, remains close with the Bulls organization. Managing Partner Jerry Reinsdorf and team president Michael Reinsdorf will attend Gasol’s Hall of Fame induction along with former basketball chief executive John Paxson and health director Chip Schaefer. Former Bulls player and current team ambassador Toni Kukoč will be on stage in Springfield’s Symphony Hall as the presenter for Gasol at Saturday night’s ceremonies.
“His agent was Arn Tellem and Arn and I have been good friends for 30 years or more,” Jerry Reinsdorf recalled about Pau. “Arn told me he was one of his favorite clients and urged me to get to know him. So when he came I introduced him to my friend Allan Muchin (Lyric Opera board of directors) and Pau become a regular at the opera. He said, ‘I’ve got to take you.’ Fortunately, it never happened. But we developed a relationship, went to dinners. I realized this was a guy with interests beyond basketball, a renaissance man who you could feel comfortable with talking art, politics, sports, music, movies, literature. We went to a Johnny Cash concert together. I’ll fly out to LA to see him for lunch at times. He’s a guy who is comfortable to be with and humble while being so accomplished.”
Despite being overshadowed with the Lakers by good friend Bryant, Pau’s resume and felicitous compendium of basketball skills ranks Gasol among the most accomplished in the game.
Gasol was a six-time All-Star and four times All-NBA while also being one of the most decorated international players ever with three European titles, five international player of the year awards and multiple tournament MVP honors with four medals in Olympic and World Cup competitions.
Not bad for a gangly kid from suburban Barcelona who was inspired by the 1992 Dream Team in his hometown, but whose benevolent and altruistic nature initially led him toward a medical career and subsequently gives back as an international United Nations ambassador and philanthropist for child health causes.
Springfield is honoring his basketball, and Gasol will stand proudly in a notable class that includes Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Gregg Popovich, Dwyane Wade, Becky Hammon, Jim Valvano and Gene Keady. If not arguably transcendent.
“He’s one of the most skilled big men in the history of the game,” says former Bulls and Lakers assistant coach Jim Cleamons. “Pau was before his time in terms of his skill set and athleticism, his ability to play multiple positions as a big. He was a bridge to the next generation. All these years, there still hasn’t really been a second version of him. Dirk Nowitzki maybe close, but then again still not as polished as an athlete.”
Though it took some time for more than the basketball cognoscenti to notice as the kid who didn’t speak much English was breaking in where they historically didn’t speak much basketball, in Memphis, Tenn.
“There are videos of me playing at eight or nine or 10, and you’re not thinking this kid is going to amount to much or become a great basketball player,” Gasol related. “But you see the intensity, the passion, the effort. Those were important factors allowing me to push and keep working and getting better. Yes, obviously, the genetics helped. It didn’t matter if it was Memphis or any place in the U.S. or Canada; I was in the NBA. I’m there fulfilling my dream, playing with the best players in the world and trying to prove and establish myself at a time when there was a lot of doubt from a lot of people. No one knew who I was, this very young kid from Spain, the third pick in the draft. Not many people thought I would succeed. But I was able to start playing a lot of minutes right away and got an opportunity to prove myself.”
Gasol won Rookie of the Year playing in every game for a recently transplanted Grizzlies team from Vancouver that won 23 games and just 28 his second season. But as Grizzlies coach and Class of 2005 Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Hubie Brown pointed out, the margin of defeat fell from 11 to three. And then improved by 22 games to win 50 games in Gasol’s third season.
“I don’t think early on he got the credit the way he could score from the top of the circle down,” said Brown. “He could post up either side and had all kinds of moves because he was so well schooled at such a young age in Spain. He was our closer and accepted that, performed extremely well and then we win 50 games and have one of six best records in the league because of him being able to play at such a high level and deliver in the clutch. And he wasn’t timid. He’d talk to coaches and offer them suggestions. He was a such a joy.”
The joy, however, began to dissipate with injuries to Pau and a lack of Grizzlies playoff success that began to draw piercing criticism even in Memphis. It propitiously at the same time had been the summer of Kobe Bryant’s distress, demands to be traded—even to the Bulls—amidst a Lakers’ decline with three seasons without a playoff series win.
“Kobe had some real concerns about the makeup of the team going into that season,” recalled then Lakers coach Phil Jackson. “He put in a trade request and didn’t play preseason, didn’t play in the last practices. Chicago was involved (in the trade talks).”
But then came the mid-season trade that shook the NBA.
Schaefer, the longtime trainer and athletic performance director for Jackson with the Bulls and Lakers, walked into the team hotel lobby that morning of Feb. 1, 2008 and ran into broadcaster John Ireland. Schaefer had heard the news. With a grin, Schaefer said, “I just had the wildest dream. I dreamt we traded Kwame Brown for Pau Gasol. Isn’t that nuts?”
Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak had packaged Brown with two first-round picks, backup point guard Javaris Crittenton and Aaron McKie, the latter who had to be lured out of his job as a 76ers assistant so the salaries would match. Kupchak also shipped to Memphis an overweight center notable only because of his last name, Gasol. Which eventually changed the tenor of the trade. Still, the Lakers got the Gasol who mattered to them at the time.
Pau's first game with the Lakers he had 24 points and 12 rebounds.
And the Lakers were back.
“When he got traded to the Lakers, I was in Miami and said they’re going to win a few championships,” recalled Shane Battier, Gasol’s Memphis teammate. “I thought, ‘Kobe and Pau? It’s over for the league.’”
“In Pau’s first game with us, the first timeout Kobe comes back to me and says, ‘I’ve got a big guy who can play with me,’” recalled Jackson. “We had been reluctant to trade for people because of the details of the (triangle) system. But Pau adapted quickly with no problem being an astute student of game and the fact he knew what was going on and his sense of timing, a great passer, ran the court, could catch the ball. Kobe won (his only) MVP that year.”
Boston’s magical run with Kevin Garnett led to the Celtics’ championship in 2008. But with Gasol ordered to the weight room with Schaefer following those playoffs, the Lakers went on to consecutive championships.
Nothing is forever in life, or sports, and so that paradigm shifting run came to an end for the Lakers and for Pau Gasol’s scoring average along with games played began to plummet toward a career nadir after the 2011 championship. Trade talk increased. It’s a business, correct?
But the lightness in his step and life returned for Pau with the winds of change that brought him to Chicago for his last big NBA run. Pau averaged 18.5 points and 11.8 rebounds his first Bulls season as the Bulls became a 50-win team again for the first time since Derrick Rose’s injuries.
Gasol’s rebounding with the Bulls was a career-best and his scoring average was second-highest in the previous six years. His second season with the Bulls he still averaged 11 rebounds per game and 16.5 points. But the Bulls fell into transition with the departure of coach Tom Thibodeau and a new style of play under coach Fred Hoiberg.
Gasol moved onto the Spurs, but never again approached his scoring and rebounding averages with the Bulls. He retired in 2021 after that season in Spain. He then also became a member of the International Olympic Committee and has discussed front office positions with various NBA franchises. Though now he primarily travels for his Foundation’s charitable work.
“No way you could have imagined (this kind of career),” acknowledged Gasol. “There was one Spanish player who played in the NBA before me, and he played briefly, Fernando Martin (24 games in 1986-87 for Portland). I thought it was unreachable, pretty much, at the time. It has been an amazing career. When I think about it, I am moved by it; everything I have been able to accomplish, the experience to share with people.
“I worked hard and put everything into it,” said Gasol. “The passion and love for the game is what also allowed me to do the things off the court as well. I loved the challenge. My ambition and my confidence in my abilities has taken me far. I’m also very thankful to my family for the way they have supported me throughout and in the critical moments of my life and being a part of my success.”
The Bulls and Chicago were fortunate to have been part of his story.
Best Free Agent Signings in Bulls History
Pau Gasol
Led the team to its last playoff series win in his first season with the team after being named to start the All-Star game at center. Led the team in rebounding, blocks and three-point shooting. He was second to Jimmy Butler in scoring and scored his career high 46 points in a career renaissance.
DeMar DeRozan
Following a career detour to San Antonio from Toronto and off the media and public radar, he became a starting All-Star and the most clutch player in the NBA with numerous game winning shots that likely helped solidify his eventual place in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
John Paxson
Although then Bulls general manager Jerry Krause signed a point guard just about every season for the next five years after acquiring Paxson, the tough Notre Damer persisted and in the 1991 and 1993 Finals made some of the biggest winning shots in franchise history.
Carlos Boozer
Often criticized for who he was not in 2010 when the Bulls lost out on free agents LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, he averaged 15 points and nine rebounds in four seasons with the Bulls. That also led to the team leading the league in wins two consecutive seasons.
Ron Harper
Initially considered a bust after he signed the then biggest free agent contract in team history to replace the retired Michael Jordan, Harper reinvented himself after knee injuries and became a defensive mainstay for the 1996-1998 champion Bulls.
Kyle Korver/Kurt Thomas/Keith Bogans
The trio was added along with Boozer in the wake of the failed attempt at James and Wade. The result was a team that swept James and Wade in the regular season before losing to them in the conference finals. The depth, size and Bench Mob became a popular strength.
Steve Kerr
The shooting specialist without Stephen Curry’s elan set Bulls records for three-point shooting and made the series clinching shot in the 1997 Finals in taking the clutch shooting baton from John Paxson.
Andres Nocioni
The physical forward from the gold medal winning Argentine 2004 Olympic team became something of the face of the rugged Baby Bulls of that era and helped lead them to the historic playoff sweep of defending champion Miami in 2007 after being named the team’s player of the year the previous season.
Nate Robinson/Marco Belinelli
Among the many desperate replacements after Derrick Rose’s serious knee injury, Robinson had one of the greatest playoff games in franchise history in a triple overtime thriller contributing to the miracle 2013 playoff run against the Nets. Belinelli similarly made cutch shots throughout that playoff run and in the clincher highlighted by Joakim Noah’s classic Game 7 in Brooklyn.
Cliff Levingston
He was a valuable role player and veteran physical presence for the first two championship teams in 1991 and 1992.
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