Pau Gasol

This post isn’t about Pau the basketball player. It is about Pau the man. Watching what he has done in supporting the Bryant family through this awful year shows just how truly great of a person Pau really is. Looking at Vanessas and Paus Instagram, seeing how much time they’re spending together and how happy they look is heart warming.

Bean knew exactly what he was doing when he made Pau his godfather, and Pau has done everything a real godfather would (and should) do.

So shoutout to Pau for being an amazing basketball player, but an even more amazing human.

He needed to score just 14 points against Hungary and he did it in the second quarter of the game.

He moves past his teammate Tony Parker, who scored 1.104 points.

His numbers don't jump off the page by modern NBA standards, although I firmly believe he would be putting up much higher point and assist averages in the modern league. His passing was excellent for a big man but he was never really asked to be the primary facilitator the way that Jokic or (at times) Sabonis is. I don't think he would be as good as Jokic (who is tbh) but I do think his floor would be a Domantas Sabonis-type and his playstyle feels like it was even a bit before its time in retrospect.

"Just trying to little by little take it in and just digest and comprehend that my number, my jersey will be up there with those great amazing players and names in the history of our game," Gasol tells ESPN. "And obviously being next to Kobe, seeing his name, still emotional.

"It's impossible [to separate]," Gasol said, wiping away tears on that night in late January. "It's inevitable. I don't know how. ... My number goes up there, in big reason, because of him.

"And also how he made me better, how he made us better, how he led us in those runs and the effect that he had. And then obviously not having him here with us, it's tough."

Think everyone is happy to see this finally happening :)