The Blueprint With Pau Gasol

His parents were both medical professionals, and young Pau Gasol thought he might want to follow their path and become a doctor one day.

But he’d also shown impressive touch and feel on the basketball court — and quickly caught the attention of youth coaches in Spain.

Gasol would make his professional debut with FC Barcelona at 18 years old, before coming over to the NBA and playing 18 seasons over an illustrious career.

On Saturday, he’ll receive the highest honor of any for a basketball player: Induction into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

The Daily Coach caught up with Gasol recently to discuss lessons from his career, how he grew from a painful NBA Finals defeat, the importance of being multidimensional, and the characteristics of a truly elite coach.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Pau, thank you for doing this and congratulations on the Hall-of-Fame induction. What were the emotions when you found out?

The Hall-of-Fame induction has been just an extraordinary feeling and honor, from being a finalist in the class to receiving the call from Jerry Colangelo to tell me and congratulating me. It was a surreal feeling. You look back on your career, all the different stops, all the different moments. It’s hard to gather them and process that they’ve all taken you to be recognized in such an incredible way.

I was just humbled and thankful to be part of the 2023 class with other incredible individuals from the coaching and playing side, from the professional side and collegiate side and even the national team side. It’s just fantastic and hard to process but trying to do it little by little. It definitely ranks in a unique category of my accomplishments, which are my teams’ accomplishments and the people who have been a part of my journey.

Take us back a little to your early years in Spain. Your parents were both in medicine. What do you think you learned early on that served you down the road?

As a kid growing up in a small city on the outskirts of Barcelona, we had a nice childhood with parents who worked extremely hard to provide us with opportunities, learning, academic and also through sports, art and culture. I felt very fortunate to grow up with those opportunities and explore my passions.

My parents worked very hard to provide us with a good life and worked together to also be present when Marc (Gasol) and I played sports, even to the point of moving the whole family together when I went to the NBA in 2001. Family and unity were huge for us.

Was the NBA what you expected it to be when you were growing up?

It wasn’t what I was expecting when I first got there. I was aware I was achieving my dream. that I was doing something very special, very difficult to achieve. But what I wanted to do was succeed and prove that I belonged and could be a special player or even one of the best in the NBA. At first, it was challenging. Memphis was a team that had moved from (Vancouver), and it was a process for all of us to adjust and adapt and transition.

You had several good years with Memphis, then get traded to the Lakers. How do you think that changed your career and how did the NBA Finals defeat to the Celtics that first year impact you?

The trade to the Lakers just opened up an opportunity that was very unique. The timing of it was great, finding myself at a point of my career in my peak. The team also really needed me, and it was a perfect fit. We went on a great run starting with that first Finals in 2008 against the Celtics, but we fell short and ran into a team that was more prepared than we were at the time.

As much as it hurt and as painful as it was, it made us stronger and left us with a feeling of hunger and desire to get back to that same position again and ultimately become champions. We carried that throughout the summer and through day one of training camp — until the very last game the next year when we beat Orlando in Orlando.

(The Finals defeat) was upsetting, but it helped us grow and made us determined to get to work and do whatever it took, to learn from the mistakes. We fell short, but we could utilize that to put in more work, which was necessary to be successful the next time.

You’ve always had a variety of interests beyond just basketball. How do you think being multidimensional allowed you to be an even better player?

Growing up, my parents exposed me to different things, to music, to art, to history, to the medical field. I was always a curious mind and a curious kid and a curious human with a variety of interests. It’s always provided me with a better perspective and better balance in my life. That’s how I was able to keep an even-keeled mind throughout my career, weathering the successes and shortcomings and defeats.

I always understood I was lucky to play the sport I loved at the highest level to the best of my ability, but understanding you can’t always win. There are many out there also trying to win who are well-equipped to do that. Sometimes, it’s going to be them. Sometimes, it’s going to be you. You have to keep working and do the best you can as you learn and grow. Having multi-interests allowed me to have a better perspective on that and still does.

You’ve expressed before that you really don’t like when people say, “I’m bored.” You think we should always be chasing knowledge and wisdom.

You realize in life (it serves you to have) the approach and mindset of learning and constantly growing, the ability to learn, how much there is to learn, the never-ending amount of knowledge that’s out there.

The ability to listen, to ask questions, all of those things are important. To be proactive, to not be passive, to not wait for things, to surround yourself with people who know more or different things than you. Diversity is important and enriching.

I’ve always been eager to learn and to read. You go through your career and your life and see constant change and development. When you think you know everything or have learned everything or have peaked in whatever aspect and you stop doing the work, or stop learning, or stop adjusting or reinventing yourself, that’s when you start declining.

That’s something I was kind of aware of in the beginning, but I’ve become even more aware of as I’ve grown older. That’s how life works. That’s how I try to live my life.

You obviously played for a number of great coaches in the NBA and in Spain in your career. What are the common characteristics of an elite coach in your eyes?

To me, the best coaches are the ones who are the biggest and best managers of individuals and egos. Establishing a common goal, establishing an identity, establishing a balance and chemistry within the team, the ones who are more convincing in getting the individuals to buy in.

If a roster is between 12 to 15 players, more now, you’re going to have eight-to-10 who are happy because they’re the guys who are playing. A significant number are not going to be so happy because they don’t get to play.

How do you keep everyone engaged and contributing to the common good and to team success and fulfilling their role to the best of their ability? That’s where the great coaches, Phil (Jackson) to me being the one at the top of the list, Hubie (Brown), and Pop and Sergio Scariolo who I’ve had in my career, those coaches can do that at a very high level.

Beyond the tactics, the playbook, the Xs and Os, it’s really about managing the ups and downs and the emotions throughout a season and the egos. It’s not easy to motivate each individual in a different way so they can play their best and do what you need them to do knowing sometimes they probably could or should do more. But what they’re doing is what the team needs.

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