The Los Angeles Lakers power forward seems keen to put the past behind him and start afresh with a refurbished roster....
In June 2009, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics came face to face for the season finale. The series, which was arguably one of the best in the last decade, stretched to seven games and had it not been for one Pau Gasol,
the Greens would have gone on to win their second consecutive championship under the Big Three era.
Gasol owned the floor in that game; he did that throughout the next season, and the Lakers went on to win another championship.
In NBA however, fortunes change quickly and the same happened with Pau.
Gasol had a lacklustre 2010-11 season – by his standards - and all of a sudden he was in the thick of trade rumours. The Lakers exited in the second round of the playoffs at the hands of the eventual champions Dallas Mavericks
that post season and in summer, Mitch Kupchak, the Lakers GM, tried to pull off a three team trade which would have seen Gasol land in Houston.
Fortunately for Gasol, the deal by nixed by David Stern, the acting owner of the New Orleans Hornets that time.
The rumours didn’t stop even after that and Gasol played under a cloud through last season, affecting his performance. However as fate would have it, it was not Pau but his frontcourt partner, Andrew Bynum, who eventually paved
way for Dwight Howard in a block buster trade.
And now that the trade murmur is finally over, Gasol is more relaxed;
“It’s very different to be in a situation where you are not in the middle of the hurricane as far as rumours, where there’s a big chance of you not being part of the team you’ve been through so much with,” Gasol said earlier in
the week. “With all that now aside and the addition of great players, it makes it much more enjoyable.”
The Lakers added Steve Nash and Dwight Howard during the summer and now boast one of the most intimidating lineups NBA has ever seen. For Gasol, he proved in the Olympics that there is still a lot left in his tank.
The seven foot Spaniard is now eager to put the past two years behind him;
"Last year, there was a lot going on, but this year's a new year," Gasol said.
If he manages to do that, the Lakers can be deadly.
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