Pau Gasol’s greatest legacy might be his humanity

LOS ANGELES — On Tuesday night, Pau Gasol will be elevated into basketball immortality.

The jersey that will hang on the wall of Crypto.com Arena is so hallowed because it is immutable. No Laker will again wear the Spaniard’s No. 16, a powerful symbol of the winning career he built on the court.

But even that sight – his name among 11 Laker greats who all helped author the franchises’ 17 championships – will never compare for Lonnie Walker IV. His strongest memory will forever be Gasol’s hand resting on his shoulder.

Of the current Lakers, Walker is the only one who was ever teammates with Gasol, now 42. It was a brief spell, just half of the 2018-19 season with the San Antonio Spurs when Walker was drafted, and Gasol was embarking on what would be his final NBA season. In a preseason game, Walker tore the meniscus in his right knee, sidelined before his rookie campaign ever began.

That’s a hard place to be for a 19-year-old with high hopes. Walker said he often wondered if the injury was an omen for an NBA career that might quickly slip from his grasp. But every day, Gasol would talk to him. And every day, he’d give Walker a dose of perspective.

“He was one of the few guys who really uplifted me and kept me very positive, understanding that there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Walker said in an interview with Southern California News Group. “There were times where I felt like it might be my only year in the NBA, and he was someone that instilled that confidence and gave me so much love, the type of player he was, and who he has become and who he is – he’s forever in my heart.”

Understand: Walker was born in 1998. He was nine when Gasol was traded to the Lakers, and as a diehard Kobe Bryant fan, Walker watched loyally. By the time they were teammates, Gasol was entering his 18th season with two championships and six All-Star nods on his resume – looming larger in Walker’s mind than even his 7-foot-1 frame would imply.

But the picture in Walker’s head, the figurative poster on the wall, was warmer than he expected. He didn’t shake hands; he hugged. The veteran and the rookie spend their time talking about injury rehab (Gasol was recovering from a foot injury), and they’d play pick-up games together. Walker never could have prepared for one of his basketball idols to be so … down to Earth.

“He embraced me with nothing but love and genuine love,” Walker said. “It was something that I didn’t expect out of Pau. His love, the way he cared, the way he took me under his wing, talked to me.”

For as towering as Gasol’s basketball achievements are, humanity was always part of the package – and perhaps the most indispensable factor about him. The jersey will hang in part because of that, but it’s impossible to fully appreciate without seeing it up close and personal.

On Monday, after spending two hours conducting one-on-one interviews with Spanish media members, Gasol strode into the purple-and-gold decked gym of the Lafayette Recreation Center, a 2-mile shot from the Lakers’ home court. He rested his huge palms on the shoulders and heads of three-dozen third-grade children who stared up at him in wonder, their minds going blank at the sight of a real-life gentle giant.

As they lined up and attempted to score on him in two-on-one matchups, many balked from shooting seeing Gasol in their path – but the former center couldn’t have been less menacing, even rebounding a few of the misses and handing the balls back to his challengers. None of them had likely ever seen him play, a fact Gasol lightly alluded to when he spoke to them later, but he cheekily offered: “It was probably pretty cool to play against a 7-footer, something different, probably haven’t done that yet?”

Gasol has been involved in the communities where he plays for decades: The Monday event was organized through his Gasol Foundation (started by him and his brother Marc), which works with thousands of children in the U.S. and in Europe to combat childhood obesity. He was well-known for visiting patients at St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Then there are the younger teammates he’s touched and advised who are still in the league. This role continued beyond his playing career: Last season, Golden State asked him to put an arm around James Wiseman, another center with Memphis roots. Gasol’s face opened up in a conversation with SCNG about Walker, his teammate for all of five months.

“Young players, there’s a lot of expectations,” Gasol said. “There’s some level of doubt that they need to prove themselves. They’ve made it to the NBA, but there’s a lot of question marks.”

Added Gasol: “So it’s important for the veteran players to provide them with perspective, to provide them with positive encouragement, with experience, and to wrap a hand around them and say, ‘Hey, it’s gonna be OK. It’s an injury, you’re dealing with it. You’re gonna work hard. You’re young. You’re gonna figure this out. And you’re gonna appreciate the times that you’re healthy and you’re out there, and that you’re playing and competing. So it’s just a part of your journey. Embrace it.’”

It was something Gasol needed back in 2001, when his NBA career got started in Memphis. He was part of a draft day trade, shipped by Atlanta along with forward Lorenzen Wright and guard Brevin Knight, who quickly became his mentors.

It was clear to the Grizzlies that Gasol, who went on to average 17.6 points and 8.9 rebounds in a blistering Rookie of the Year campaign, was a brilliant, emerging talent. That wasn’t always how he was talked about in town: Wright was a hometown star who attended Memphis, and in the post-dominated slugfest of the early-2000s NBA, the 6-foot-11 Wright was a bruiser – someone who played the way Memphians thought big men ought to play.

“It was hard for them to recognize a finesse big and not a physical big,” said Knight, who now does color commentary for the Grizzlies. “We told him being who he was was gonna be good enough. People would appreciate his greatness as time went on. They definitely got on board.”

But behind closed doors, Knight and Wright built up Gasol and told him to play his own way. Punishing practice sessions against Wright built confidence for Gasol to be himself – the kind of player who would team up with Bryant in L.A. as the foundation of the 2009 and 2010 championship teams.

One of Gasol’s most famous performances in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals saw him grab 18 rebounds against the Celtics – proof of his toughness in case any questions remained.

“It was important when veteran players said, ‘It’s OK, you’re great,’” he recalled. “You’re gonna have bad nights. You’re gonna have bad games. You’re very talented. You’re gonna figure this out. Just go out there and play.’ That goes a long way.”

Related Articles

Gasol has seen fit to keep paying that forward – through his mentorship, through his charity and through anyone he calls a friend. Gasol told ESPN in 2021 that his “softness” might have melted even the steely exterior of Bryant in the end, perhaps one of his most impressive achievements as an ambassador of emotional vulnerability.

He keeps up with the Lakers at all levels, visiting the facility last fall as a friend of Coach Darvin Ham, who coached Gasol as an assistant with the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks. He is an ambassador for FIBA, attempting to grow the game across the world and its borders.

The jersey will hang for a long, long time, but Gasol tries to make the moments he can spend with others memorable, meaningful and precious. It’s a piece of his legacy that Knight thinks will be remembered for years to come as well.

“No matter the level of fame he’s ascended to, he’s never forgotten the essence of who he is,” he said. “I think that’s how Pau has always been. That’s why people like myself have always thought so highly of him. Purely because of the person he is to go along with the talent.”