Pau Gasol returns home as an NBA champion
Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers is excited to go back to where it all began. And it turns out there’s no shortage of people excited for Gasol.
The Lakers will play an exhibition game against his former team FC Barcelona Thursday night at Palau Sant Jordi. Gasol joined the team when he was 16 years old, helping them win two Spanish League titles.
"I am looking forward to this game and to this challenge. But if anything, I am really, really excited for Pau," said fellow team-mate Kobe Bryant. "It must be an amazing experience for him to come back
to where it all started for him, as a two-time NBA champion and one of the greatest players in the world. I just want to sit back and watch him have a great time."
The game will mark Gasol's third homecoming as an NBA player but his first as a Laker. As a member of the Memphis Grizzlies, he played in an exhibition game in 2003 in Barcelona as well as a pair of games
in 2007 in Madrid and Malaga. But this time, Gasol is returning as a two-time NBA champion, making the visit feel a little more special.
"Without a doubt it is a dream...that has now become a reality," said Gasol, 30. "I see the excitement of the people who are proud and happy for us to be here."
The emotional homecoming for Gasol has even reached the top brass of the league.
"To have the opportunity for a player like Pau to go back...it’s just been great for our league," said NBA commissioner David Stern. "We’re delighted to go, in effect, with Pau, because the fans love him
there. He really has changed the appetite for basketball enormously in Catalunya and Barcelona."
The game is the second and last for the Lakers overseas, who are participating in NBA Europe Live, a program that brings NBA teams to European destinations to promote the game overseas. They were defeated
111-92 by the Minnesota Timberwolves in their exhibition game in London, England on Monday. Still recovering from knee surgery, Bryant only played six minutes in that game despite the crowd imploring him to play more. Because Bryant will likely play limited
minutes again against Barcelona, Gasol should get a lot of chances to thrill his home-town fans.
"He’s the guy who’ll have to take a leadership role," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
Juan Carlos Navarro, point guard for Barcelona and a close friend of Gasol, wants to win this one after the Lakers beat them in a pre-season game in Los Angeles in 2008.
"This time they are playing against the European champs," Navarro said. "I already told Pau, half joking and half not, that we would surely win."
The Lakers will of course come in as a favourite for the game, which will be more of an opportunity to showcase top quality NBA talent to a European audience than anything. Though generally European fans
have been disappointed in Bryant’s inability to play more than a few minutes per game, in Barcelona, to be sure, they’ll be happy to see the hometown boy step up.
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