Gasol brothers bid adieu to ridiculously successful Spanish international basketball era

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/08/2021 (1499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TOKYO—As memorable salutes go, this was hardly a joyous exclamation point. This was a long way from Marc Gasol guzzling a bottle of wine from the top deck of a bus as the Raptors feted a championship in the heat of that unforgettable Toronto summer.

This was Gasol wearing the red and gold of the Spanish national team on the occasion of a more sombre, and decidedly more sober, kind of celebration.

In the wake of Tuesday’s 95-81 quarterfinal loss to the United States, Marc Gasol and older brother Pau bid adieu to a ridiculously successful era of Spanish hoops. To put it in a bit of context, Canada hasn’t qualified a men’s team to the Games since 2000. But in each of the five Olympics since, there’s been a Gasol involved, and usually in a medal game.

So it seemed to mean something to everyone involved in Tuesday’s U.S.-Spain game that the Gasol brothers were saying their five-ringed goodbye. There were post-game hugs for both from various American stars, among them Kevin Durant. And there was the choking back of tears when the time came to put feelings into words.

“It’s hitting me now,” said Marc, speaking of the significance of the moment. “It’s life. It’s destined to change.”

If everything changes, the Gasols were fixtures of the Spanish program longer than most players could reasonably dream. Pau Gasol, who returned from a devastating foot injury to play in his fifth Olympics here at age 41, was a linchpin of the Spanish team that won silver medals in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, not to mention a bronze in Rio five years ago. Marc, 36, was along for both those silver medals and, though he missed the Rio Olympics with an injury, he was playing here in his third Games.

Tack on a couple of gold medals in the World Cup in 2006 and 2019, and too many European championship medals to count, and you had a special generation of Spaniards, albeit one that sounded more than ready to cede the stage to a younger wave.

“It’s been a helluva ride,” Marc said. “I think it’s time for somebody else to enjoy the ride. I think it’s time for me to get off the ride and for some young guys to step on and enjoy it. I think it’s the time.”

For Marc Gasol, if this was the end as an Olympian, and as a Spanish international, it wasn’t the end as a pro. Though he is coming off the worst season of his career, after leaving the Raptors in free agency to join the Los Angeles Lakers, he said he plans to return to the Lakers in the fall.

“I mean, I’m under contract. I mean, as far as I know,” he said. “I haven’t checked my phone. You know how everything works. But, yeah, that’s the plan.”

For Pau, meanwhile, the future on a basketball court sounded less clear. He played this past season with FC Barcelona with an eye toward the Olympics and said he has yet to make a decision about the coming professional year.

“This was my last game with the national team,” Pau said. “Now I’ll have to digest and think about it with my family, whether it’s worth it for me to continue to play or should I move on to different challenges and other goals in life.”

While there was optimism that the Gasols and their countrymen could be medal contenders — and though Spain led the U.S. by as many as 10 points before halftime — Pau said that, given his career path, there was victory in being fit to play. The double navicular stress fracture in his left foot required surgery and most of two years to repair. To say there were doubts he’d ever return to top-level competition would be understating the grimness of his initial prognosis.

“I don’t think there are many cases of a double fracture navicular, at 41, playing. I haven’t heard of one,” Pau said. “So just the fact that I was able to come back and play … that was just a huge success already.

The Gasol brothers’ roles Tuesday seemed more ceremonial than Spain’s head coach, Sergio Scariolo, probably would have liked. Though Marc took the opening tip but played just 10 minutes. Pau played just six minutes. And while Ricky Rubio led the Spanish team with 38 points, neither Gasol scored a point.

But this wasn’t an occasion to finger blame.

“This is a time to really enjoy the moment. Being part of a legend is a privilege,” said Scariolo, the former Raptors assistant coach who earlier this summer announced he was departing Toronto for a head-coaching job in the Italian league.

“To share locker rooms, share practices, share games, trips during so many years to me has been a blessing. I couldn’t even dream of anything like this when I took over so many years ago. At the same time, there are many of us who are motivated and ready to keep going and keep competing with the legacy of the ones who will not be with us any more, with their example. Hopefully our young players have learned.”

It appeared Tuesday as though the U.S. team, for all its struggles in losing pre-Olympic friendlies to the likes of Nigeria and Australia, is finding its bearings as it advanced to the semifinals in pursuit of a fourth straight Olympic gold medal.

“Guys are starting to understand their roles and just get more comfortable within the team,” said Durant. “In this setting, it’s always hard to get your footing as an individual player because you don’t want to step on toes. I love how we stuck with it throughout this whole period of time and guys started figuring out what we need to do.”

If there’s a guaranteed medal game ahead for the U.S., the Gasols sounded more than content with the enormity of their collection.

“We had way too many medals,” said Marc. “When we started, you’re not supposed to win that many medals.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Head Start

Weekday Mornings

A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day.

Sign up for Head Start

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

And now that he and his brother’s national-team careers were ending, it was time for a new blood to fill the void.

“They’ve got to become their own players. They don’t have to become Pau or Marc,” said Marc. “They have to become themselves. And the only way to do that is playing time. And for that to happen, the older guys gotta get the hell out of the way. It’s life. It’s how it works … They’re ready.”

Whether Spain’s next generation is up for the challenge, the linchpins of such a decorated one won’t soon be forgotten.

Said Sergio Rodriguez, the Spanish guard, paying tribute to the Gasols: “It will be a long time that we will remember them.”

Dave Feschuk is a Toronto-based sports columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @dfeschuk