Born as
Pau Gasol Paez on July 6, 1980, Pau is a Spanish
professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) of the United States. He was first drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Draft in 2001 before he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies with which he later won the
NBA Rookie of the Year Award, and holds the team franchise records for career games played. Following seven seasons with the Memphis, he was traded to the LA Lakers in February 2008, a trade that involved his younger brother Marc, who now plays with the Memphis team.
Profile. A 7-footer, Gasol is however very athletic and quick at his size. He plays primarily the positions of power forward and center, and is a scorer in both the post and mid-range areas. He uses fake shots to score efficiently, as well as a variety of hook shots, mid-range jumpers and up-and-under moves. He’s endowed with foot speed to make a successful fast break, and a passing skill that has earned him 3.2 assists per game in his career. An above-average shot blocker, he has averaged 1.7 blocks per game. He has reached his 10,000th point in a game against the Utah Jazz.
Early Life. At the time of Pau’s birth at the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona, his family was living in Cornella. When he was six years old, they moved to Sant Boi de Llobregat, a suburb in Barcelona, where Pau spent the rest of his childhood. As a schoolboy, he was described by his mentors as a perfect student, a joker but shy. His first sport was rugby although he had no original plan to make
sports as his career. At 11, he made known his desire to be a doctor to help find a cure for the dreaded Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This was after he heard the news that Magic Johnson, a
popular basketball star in the NBA, admitted he was HIV-positive. He eventually enrolled in the medical school of the University of Barcelona which he left to join the FC Barcelona basketball team.
Early Career to NBA. Pau began playing basketball with his school team Alvirne. In 1996, he was only 16 when he began playing for Barcelona’s junior team following his brief stint with Cornella. He moved to Barcelona’s senior team after winning the Albert Schweitzer tournament and the FIBA-Europe Under-18 Championship. In the 1998-99 season, he played in the Spanish ACB League before being named Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the Spanish National Cup which his team Barcelona won in 2001. This opened to door to his NBA career. Playing his first season with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001 when the Rookie of the Year Award, he went on to make sizzling records in the NBA, like grabbing the 1500th rebound of his career in 2003, 3000th career point also in 2003, and his 5000th point in 2005. He was chosen to play in the 2006 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas for the Western Conference. In the2006-2007 NBA season, he was name MVP despite missing 23 games due to a broken foot and became the team’s leading scorer. Since 2008, he has been playing great games with the LA Lakers with which he signed a 3-year extension worth US$64.7 million in 2009.
Personal life. Outside basketball, he still shows strong interests in
medicine . He regularly visits young patients at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. He has taught himself Italian and French languages along with Spanish and English. He reads historical novels when he is not attending concerts and operas around his Tennessee residence.
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