Why the fukk is Pau Gasol name randomly getting dragged into this damn conversation
Pau was winning international games before the 07-08 Laker season yet I see some names trying to portray him like he was some empty stats guy doing nothing until Lakers finally got him:
Pau won Fiba World Cup 2006 with Spain and got that tournament's MVP trophy as well, won silver Eurobasket medals in 2003 and 2007, won Spanish league trophies before he entered NBA draft. It's like basketball doesn't exist to some outside the NBA.
Why do you think the Lakers were interested in Pau Gasol? Because they saw that he could deliver in important games if only he played on actual good team. Dude was pretty consistent in games under pressure.
Those Grizzlies had no business winning shyt. Lost to prime Spurs and also got swept by Phoenix Suns with prime Amare destroying Stromile Swift to the point where Swift looked like Temu version of STAT when both were in the game lol.