When Spain woke up, Pau was no longer there.
There is the example, the foundation of those 11 podiums in 15 summers with the selection; A personal and professional ethics that became parallel to the successes and explains the longevity without the fact that the legend would not be. Nothing has to do with the boy who, in 2002, in the Indianapolis World Cup, was said goodbye to several journalists with an unreproducible phrase 19 years later, by playful to be, with the man who left the pavilion on Tuesday of Aristocratic. The initiatory Pau Gasol, for example in 2003, coared a black t-shirt of suspenders at a night out to, according to his companions, presuming from sprinkling muscles. Gasol aimed at posterity, let's put 2011 as an example, and Treintañero, was still working at the hotel gym, alone next to the physiotherapist of him, on a good night, while the rest already played the ping-pong. From boasting perseverance, the conquest of the world.
When in 2005 he took his first break in the team, he went as a commentator and stayed at the same hotel as the team. He participated in the games of the day and the early morning holidays, for sleeplessness of the coach, Mario Fisherous. When in 2010 the second license was taken, he arrived for the quarterfinal match and stayed for free. When Spain lost, the sixth, where he commented on the matches, freed him from continuing in Turkey, but Pau wanted to stay with the team to shelter him in those bad hours in which Sergio Scariolo was saved. Neither inside the court was a teaching to learn.
It was not always how it will be reminded. Two decades ago, in advanced as Jorge Garbajosa and Alfonso Reyes, presidents today from the Basketball Federation and the players' union, he generated strains by individualist. He also untied discomfort in seeing that all the attention will be redirected. But Pau soon became entirely collective, with irrevocable inflection after the 2006 world gold, in Saitama, where yesterday, and the collective understood that a special being deserves exclusivity - not confusing with privileges. The gear fit and thus became eternity.
After the end of 2003, Moncho López, the coach, admitted to two journalists: "We have to assume that, from now on, for the games we will have to qualify without Pau." He was the aforementioned who in the crepusculus, at 35, prodigious commitment, he enlisted first for the Eurobasket of 2015 and perhaps left the best game of him: 40 points and 11 rebounds before France, host covered by 26,922 spectators. A bestiality that was worth the classification for river games. Pau added his third Olympic metal, bronze. And if he has survived the 2019 injury, imposing two years of comeback, it was because of the dream of this last dance in Tokyo. With him, we rest in peace.
This early morning, from Wednesday, the Madrid Plaza de Plaza de Seleción de las Selection, alien since 2008, crossed the Madrid. Many something broke yesterday.
Time ends up reaching Pau, after denying the logic. Among them, an infallible: being a star in the NBA is repelled with the attachment to the selection. Only four summers was not Pau; In 2019, broken physically. And that championship resulted in global gold, a title for another future, why not. Tony Parker or Dirk Nowitzki, two players from their international rank and whose contribution to their national equood was praised, signed 11 championships. Pau, 15. As many as Felipe Reyes, and one less than Juan Carlos Navarro, fidelity progidies, also, with whom he shared double Junior Gold, European in 1998 and worldwide in 1999, and the first podium of maturation, European bronze in 2001. If they had been only partners, they would have colliped. They are #lafamily. GASOL WORD: "We are a unit, we live and die together. It is the key to our success."
The era needed everyone, and they gave wonders, but it would not have been without Pau, a highest historical scorer (3,656 points). About anyone will remain, because nobody else is left. And it's good to find that nothing (us) should. On the contrary. If José Luis Sáez, as president of the Federation, reached ministerial tinsel; If Pepu Hernández, gold coach, gained fame for a future as a politician; If several representatives were fortunate; If pride was chronized in the fans; If the journalists met world, he went to his mercy. Of those who were, he barely resisted him and a hand of journalists. Neither technicians, nor assistants, nor federations, or players. Existence, for good or for evil, changes you of place in 20 years. Except for Pau, perennial to demonstrate unique, beyond the borders of him.
In the absence of 1:59 for the end to the United States, this Tuesday, the television filmmaker left the track and looked for the cessating face. When the match ended, he reporsed him again, to review the farewell hugs to a world idol, the same as 4:38 o'clock in the morning of June 15, 2009, in Spain, he made tronce in 215 countries and 42 languages: "The Lakers, NBA champions, with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol". His father summarized: "Son, bastard, the one you've bundled," while his mother put order in that Orlando's wardrobe and captured the moment with his pink camera, Pau received the telephone congratulation of his brother Marc and Little Adrià passed from The loves of Kobe in the corridors of the pavilion. A photo was made with eight Spanish journalists, a generosity back.
In the United States, they ask me: 'Where did you leave?', And I answer them: 'From my mother, my father, from Barcelona, from Spain'
That ring - there would be a second - accelerated an international projection that mixed with glories and persistence leave him in the story in hand by hand with Rafa Nadal, his intimate. He also walked solicitous to save his compadre Navarro from the Claws of Dusko Ivanovic; Receptive against Fernando Alonso on vacation by the United States, against Ferran Adriá promotional visit, along with Plácido Domingo in the dressing room, as a guide to the Kings, for Madrid when a few games were played or holding the Spanish flag at the 2012 Olympic Opening.
In convulsed political times, he said: "In the United States, they ask me: 'Where did you leave?', And I answer: 'From my mother, my father, from Barcelona, from Spain'". Marisa, with her 1.87, and Agustí, with her 1.95, owes a genetics and more: "Denying ostentation is a family heritage," in the words of the firstborn, who also has to thank Spanish basketball. In a reciprocal relationship, he became illuminated without end, dominated a continent (three golds: 2009, 2011 and 2015) and challenged the Empire.
The afternoon prior to his debut with the Lakers, on February 4, 2008, at the Ritz-Carlton in New York, with a smile like never, summed up: "It's going to be nice to feel in the NBA, with the Lakers, what I feel Every summer with Spain ". 24 hours later, after its debut, in the informative labels that traveled the walls of Times Square, the heart of the universe, it was read: "Pau Gasol, with 24 points in its debut, helps the Lakers win the Nets in the Worst annotation of Kobe Bryant (6) ". The following news alluded to such an Obama, in the first step of him towards the White House.
That height reached the SANT BOI (1980), medical student, until first; ACB champion at age 20, and at 40; Chosen number three of the Draft 2001, the highest position for a foreigner until then; six times all-star, including the initial jump with Marc Gasol (2015); about 215 million dollars in salary, between Grizzlies, Lakers, Bulls, Spurs, Bucks and Blazers, in 18 seasons ... and, above all things, owner of that unpublished 2012 devotion, when after concluding the Olympic Final, the Second golden silver, attracted the champions to comfort him to the bench. A pilgrimage that included Harden, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Westbrook or Kobe Bryant, so present in memory.
Elisabet Gianna named Pau to her daughter, who will turn a year on September 13, as Gianna was Kobe's daughter, deceased in helicopter accident with her father. Now in Tokyo, the day that Biles broke - or healed - the soul, the consolation of Pau was not missing, which has been lavished in gestures like that, to confirm that the human will always be first.
The example is in the broadest sense and the lament of not having doubled, except in a minor party of the 2002 World Cup, by fifth place, to the United States. The best occasion was far away. It was in the 2004 games. The next one has the date of 2014, in the World Cup. If no curdled, the responsibility corresponds to whoever evil chose a coach. The end of 2008 and 2012 are indifferable; This Tuesday I just had to say goodbye. Clinging to the strictest objectivity, only one can add: it was lucky, it was a pleasure, it was a privilege.
Living like this was a dream.
Date Of Update: 03 August 2021, 21:23
