Olympic Legends - Pau Gasol
BARCELONA (Olympics) - Pau Gasol has iconic status in Spain, where for many years he has been the nation's most famous player. There have been many highs but some lows, too. Gasol was terrific at the Athens Games in 2004, when he was developing into the one of the best players in the sport. He led the tournament in scoring at 22.4 points per ...
BARCELONA (Olympics) - Pau Gasol has iconic status in Spain, where for many years he has been the nation's most famous player.
There have been many highs but some lows, too.
Gasol was terrific at the Athens Games in 2004, when he was developing into the one of the best players in the sport.
He led the tournament in scoring at 22.4 points per contest and was the fifth leading rebounder at 7.3 per game.
Spain won all five of their Preliminary Round games that year but tournament play can be cruel.
Their reward was a Quarter-Final against the United States and their star-studded squad of NBA players who had underachieved and suffered two losses in their opening five games.
Gasol could not have done anything more against the USA that year, pouring in 29 points and grabbing six rebounds, but the Americans weren't to be denied and won, 102-94.
Spain had no chance to win a medal after that setback and left Athens with a bitter taste, yet determined to do better next time.
Two years later, the 2.14m Gasol fired Spain to their most famous moment, a gold-medal triumph at the FIBA World Championship in Japan.
He was the MVP of the event, but missed the Final after getting hurt in the narrow triumph over Argentina in the last four.
At the Beijing Games two years later, Gasol led Spain to a podium finish at an Olympics for the first time since 1984, when they captured silver in Los Angeles.
Once again, he was the team's most dominant player and the leading scorer at the Summer Games as he averaged 19.6 points per game.
The American team once again proved a hurdle that was too high to clear, beating Spain 118-107 in the gold medal game.
Gasol had 21 points and six boards in that defeat.
In his two summers with Spain since 2008, in 2009 and 2011, Gasol has been an awesome sight, leading the country to EuroBasket gold medals each time.
At the event in Poland, in 2009, fresh off helping the Los Angeles Lakers win the NBA title, Gasol was the MVP of the EuroBasket.
After helping the Lakers defending their NBA crown in 2010 and missing the 2010 World Championship, he made the all-tournament team at EuroBasket 2011 in Lithuania.
Following that gold-medal triumph over France in Kaunas, Gasol celebrated but also looked ahead to London.
"Our dream is to win Olympic gold," he said.
FIBA