By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
The Los Angeles Lakers will be retiring Pau Gasol’s jersey, as the franchise announced. Gasol announced his retirement from basketball Tuesday (5/10).
Gasol won two championship titles with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010. He joined the team via trade with the Memphis Grizzlies in February 2008 and played there until 2014.
The Lakers have retired 11th jersey so far: Kobe Bryant’s #8 and #24, Wilt Chamberlain’s #13, Elgin Baylor’s #22, Magic Johnsons, #32, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s #33, Shaquille O’ Neal’s #34, Jerry West’s #44, Gail Goodrich’s #25 and Jamaal Wilkes’ #52. Gasol’s #16 will become the 11th jersey that will be hanged from the rafters of Staples Center.
Gasol will also become the seventh European player to have his jersey retired by an NBA team after Drazen Petrovic (New Jersey Nets, now Brooklyn Nets), Peja Stojakovic (Sacramento Kings), Vlade Divac (Sacramento Kings), Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs) and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks) whose retirement ceremony is expected to take place during the upcoming season.
Gasol, 41, has been contemplating his future during the offseason, after making his last professional appearance with his native FC Barcelona during the 2020-21 campaign. A long-awaited return happened after 20 successful years in the NBA.
During this time, Gasol was crowned NBA champion twice with the Los Angeles Lakers (2009, 2010) and has been named into the NBA All-Star six times in total (2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2016).
A pillar of the Spanish national team, Gasol has won the silver medal at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, a bronze at the 2016 Olympics, gold at the 2006 FIBA World Cup and lifted the national team to three gold medals at the FIBA EuroBasket (2009, 2011, 2015).
Besides his numerous awards and honors, Gasol has been using his medium to advocate for human rights as a UNICEF ambassador since 2003. In 2013, he established the Gasol Foundation alongside his brother Marc, with a mission to eradicate childhood obesity.
Gasol has also been a strong advocate for women’s basketball and has also served as the Vice-President of the NBPA.