- 8 months ago
When Marc Gasol became a Memphis Grizzly, everyone was mad. Memphis got Marc in the trade that sent his brother -- star center Pau Gasol -- to Los Angeles. That was the headline. Nobody cared that Pau had a little brother, or that Pau's little brother was turning into quite a good player.
So how did we get from there ... to here? Everyone knows Marc Gasol now as one of the greatest players in Grizzlies history. Let's visit some prior versions of Marc Gasol in the Prism.
So how did we get from there ... to here? Everyone knows Marc Gasol now as one of the greatest players in Grizzlies history. Let's visit some prior versions of Marc Gasol in the Prism.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Mark Gasol is a Grizzlies legend. I'll give you a moment here to tell me that that's an oxymoron,
00:05that the Grizzlies are a new and not very successful franchise, so saying Grizzlies legend is like
00:11saying jumbo shrimp. Go ahead, get it out of your system. Okay, back to Mark. The Memphis Grizzlies
00:17were quite good while Mark Gasol was their star, and what a star he was. Three all-star teams and
00:24a first-team All-NBA selection, one Defensive Player of the Year award, and a long run of
00:29consistent, exciting playoff contention. This was a franchise-defining era of Memphis basketball,
00:37the grit and grind years, and among all these local legends, these Grizzlies for life,
00:42Mark Gasol was arguably the best player. Then, late in his career, Gasol got dealt to Toronto and
00:50promptly participated in the greatest moment in that franchise's young history. Add in all the
00:55medals Gasol won competing for Spain in international competition, and you have a hell of a player,
01:02like way greater than a lot of people expected, and remarkably close in greatness to Mark's older
01:08brother, Hall of Famer Pau Gasol. And actually, that's where we should start. Let's meet some other
01:14earlier versions of Mark Gasol in the prism, because people did not see this coming.
01:19Hey, real quick, Secret Base is on Patreon. For a few bucks a month, you can see a lot more stuff
01:25than you'd get from just subscribing to our YouTube. Okay, anyway. A lot of NBA fans heard
01:31Mark Gasol's name for the first time on February 1st, 2008, the date of a notorious, history-shifting
01:39NBA trade. The LA Lakers, fearful that Kobe Bryant might leave town if they didn't find him a new
01:45co-star, shocked the league by completing a trade for Pau Gasol, an extremely productive center from
01:51Spain entering his prime with the Memphis Grizzlies. In exchange for one of the best big men on earth,
01:58the top scorer in franchise history to that date, a future Hall of Famer who'd go on to win two titles
02:03with Kobe in LA, the Grizzlies got... hmm. The Memphis commercial appeal was just like, huh? They saw
02:11minimal talent and minimal potential in the return package from the Lakers. Their columnist called the
02:16trade return from LA, flotsam. This is just a big-ass thumbs down. The trade was scandalous. It was
02:24a steal. Steve Kerr recalls thinking the Grizzlies traded Pau for nothing. Greg Popovich called it
02:31beyond comprehension and wished he had the authority to veto it. Here was one of the league's mightiest
02:38legacy teams somehow snatching an elite player from a sad, dumb franchise. They got him for nothing.
02:46Of course, the Grizzlies didn't accept literally nothing in return for their best player. It was
02:51just that fans, media, and even executives had little regard for, and in some cases, little knowledge
02:57of the players Memphis got in return. The picks and rights and whatnot didn't change anyone's mind.
03:03Well, deep down, that list of odds and ends was a familiar name. Gasol. Yes, it turned out there
03:11was another Gasol, and the Lakers held his draft rights. The Grizzlies traded Pau for his own
03:17brother. A, quote, second-round pick who will almost certainly be dealt. So, this was, for many,
03:24an introduction to Marc Gasol. He was nothing. He was nobody. At best, he was a piece to be traded
03:30again. The mere fact of his existence was a novelty. Pau's got a brother, tucked between the lines of a
03:36travesty. Okay, so who actually was Marc Gasol? It helps to first understand Pau's trajectory up to
03:44that point. Pau Gasol was an outstanding, decorated player in Spain playing for FC Barcelona. He got picked
03:51third in the 2001 NBA draft and ended up with the Grizzlies, who were in the process of moving from
03:57Vancouver to Memphis. And, just like the franchise itself, Pau's whole family relocated, in their
04:04case, from Catalonia to Memphis. While Pau ascended as a Grizzly, leading scorer, rookie of the year,
04:11all-star, the Gasols found their own footing in their new home. His parents pursued jobs in the
04:17medical fields, and his younger brother, Marc, enrolled in high school. Marc dominated for the
04:22Lausanne basketball team, but that's not saying much. He was much bigger than everyone, and this
04:27was a small private school, a major downgrade talent-wise from competition he might have faced
04:32back home. Marc didn't give much thought to his fitness because he didn't have to. He behaved like
04:39an ordinary, rapidly growing teenaged boy, not like someone training to become an elite athlete.
04:44And we have none other than NBA legend Jerry West, whose son was a friend and teammate of Marc's,
04:50as a witness to this era. But, because of his big brother, Marc had every opportunity to observe
04:56the discipline of NBA players, and decided he wanted to give it a shot. Instead of playing in
05:01the NCAA, where teams weren't that interested in him anyway, 19-year-old Marc left his family behind
05:07to return to Barcelona, where, honestly, the team wasn't that interested in him. Marc rode the bench
05:14for FC Barcelona, seeing only modest increases in playing time over three seasons from 2003 to 06.
05:21It took some lucky and unlucky breaks for Marc Gasol to level up. And hard work, of course.
05:282006 was a FIBA World Cup year. Spain did not include Marc Gasol on their initial World Cup roster.
05:35He wasn't supposed to be in this photo. But then, big man Fran Vasquez hurt his back,
05:40so Spain called Marc as a replacement. A lot of people thought it was a favor to Pau.
05:46But Marc, under strict instructions to work on his fitness, proved himself a solid bench contributor.
05:52When Pau went down with a foot injury before the championship game, Marc stepped up in his stead
05:58to help Spain take home gold. Good timing. Marc's expiring contract with Barca had left him in a bit
06:04of a professional no-man's land until that World Cup breakout regenerated interest. He spent the next
06:10season with a less excellent pro club, Girona, that represented the perfect opportunity for Marc to
06:16stand out. Gasol led Girona to a little hardware in 07, then entered the NBA draft simply because his
06:22eligibility was about to expire. Marc still was not regarded that highly as an NBA prospect and showed
06:29no interest in improving his reputation. He didn't work out for any teams, and he didn't report for
06:35training camp after the Lakers snagged him with a mid-second round pick. Marc stayed with Girona for
06:40the 07-08 season, which was his best to date as a pro. And in the middle of that breakout season,
06:47his rights got traded to Memphis. Back in the US, the trade was a travesty, and the Grizzlies were
06:53miserable without Pau, finishing the 08 season with 60 losses. People were still mad about Pau's exit,
07:01not necessarily excited by the potential addition of his obscure younger brother, and not necessarily
07:07moved by the Grizzlies touting their interest in signing the lesser Gasol. Marc molds not accepting
07:13the Grizzlies offer. I suspect he wouldn't have even considered crossing the ocean for a team besides
07:18the one in his adopted home city, because the money was not going to be as good in the NBA.
07:23But indeed, he was the rare foreign-born, foreign-employed player who could become closer to his
07:30family by joining the NBA team with his rights. But things were going really well in Spain, and the
07:36money would be better at least in the short term. Ultimately, Marc accepted the Grizzlies offer. That
07:41meant reuniting with his family, but it also meant picking up where Pau left off. Marc would have to step
07:47out from his brother's shadow. In one respect, that was quite daunting. Pau had become the top scorer
07:53in franchise history and given the Grizzlies their winningest seasons to date. In other respects,
07:58the comparison to Pau offered motivation and even validation. As a sort of gangly youngster,
08:05Pau's mobility and finesse helped make him great, but sometimes drew the ire of fans who perceived him as
08:13weak or soft or non-confrontational. Not a traditional, tough, overpowering big man.
08:19No such problem for Marc. Even as a rookie, Marc made very clear that watching him play
08:24would be a very different Gasol experience. While not at all lacking in finesse, Marc was willing to
08:30move more like a traditional center. He rebounded, he blocked shots, he scored down low. If he had to
08:36fight somebody, he would fight somebody. Marc became Memphis' starting center right out of the
08:41gates and drew positive attention for his style of play not just from fans, but from teammates who
08:47had played beside his older brother. His distinct style seemed more appealing. None of that meant
08:53Marc was better than Pau, but between watching Marc in the 08 Olympics and now in the NBA,
08:59fellow players were coming to realize that this dude was quite good in his own right. He just needed
09:04sharpening. Whereas Pau spent his early Grizzly years adding strength, Marc needed conditioning,
09:09and after his rookie season, he went for it. Marc spent the summer of 09 lugging weights up and down
09:15the hills of Catalonia to the point that the Grizzlies staff who visited him there were like,
09:20wait, is that you or Pau? So Marc's body changed, but his distinct style remained. And it felt more and
09:27more like a match with the rest of the roster, if not the whole city. Like the miserable sacrifice of Pau
09:33was an organ donation to make room for his better fitting brother. 2010 saw improvement for both
09:40player and team. The Grizzlies went from deep lottery to almost making the playoffs. 2011
09:46crystallized and identity. Grit and grind. Newcomer Tony Allen was the first to say it out loud,
09:53but it was embodied by the whole team and Marc especially. They were tough, pugnacious, defense-minded,
10:00and for the first time basically ever, very good. Good enough to pull off a historic first round
10:06upset of the one seed San Antonio Spurs. Good enough that when they eventually fell in the second round
10:11against the OKC Thunder, fans greeted their defeated Grizzlies at the airport. In his adopted home city,
10:18for a fan base that raged over the trade to acquire him, Marc Gasol was a hero. Pretty cool. And
10:25thankfully that was not the end. It very well could have been. After the 2011 lockout, Memphis players
10:31were fired up to run it back and improve upon their historic season. But Gasol's contract situation
10:36remained unresolved and he no-showed the first few days of training camp. His teammates were terrified
10:42that their employer might wreck the momentum by shortchanging or even trading their star center with
10:48only one year left on his deal. The quotes from those first Gasol-free days of camp show you how
10:54much Big Spain, as Tony Allen called him, meant to the Grizzlies. Allen said once they got Gasol back,
11:00he'd be happier than a kid with a happy meal. Zach Randolph said Gasol had to come back and he meant it.
11:06Randolph's own re-signing hinged on a management promise to also re-up Gasol. OJ Mayo, he needs to be here.
11:13Mike Conley, he's our final piece. Rudy Gay, we need Marc. There are no more Gasol brothers. Which
11:21is technically untrue. There's a third one, but you get the point. And they got their wish. Marc Gasol
11:27re-signed and things only got better from there. Gasol was a first-time All-Star in 2012. In 2013,
11:34he got that Defensive Player of the Year trophy and led the Grizzlies to 56 wins in a conference final.
11:39The Grit and Grind Grizzlies didn't win at all, but they won over Memphis and won themselves
11:44permanent recognition. Gasol eventually got traded, no hard feelings, just a rebuild, and he ended up
11:51with the 2019 champion Toronto Raptors. And even with another team, Gasol had his championship ring
11:57inscribed with the motto of the team and city that meant everything to him. Marc Gasol was born in
12:03Barcelona. Marc Gasol broke out in Girona and that city remains important to him. But Marc
12:08Gasol became the Marc Gasol we all remember in Memphis, his adopted home city. The city where
12:15his NBA dreams could have died, where his brother's shocking departure could have permanently soured
12:20things for his family. Instead, Marc remade himself, redefined his name for a whole city,
12:27and made a lot of people rethink a notorious trade. The man once dismissed as nothing,
12:33now hangs in the rafters as a Grizzly for life.
12:45Thank you for watching, and I wasn't kidding about that Patreon. All these people could tell you it's
12:49a great resource to stay in touch with us, see stuff before it premieres on YouTube,
12:54and access all sorts of exclusive videos and podcasts and more. It's good!
Be the first to comment