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Swanson: Kobe was right, there’s ‘no debate’ about Lakers retiring Pau Gasol’s No. 16

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Pau Gasol was the Lakers’ litmus test.

Were you a true basketball aficionado or a fair-weather fan? Chess or checkers? Serious or simple?

Because so much of the head-spinning conversation during Gasol’s six-and-a-half season stay in L.A. sounded like this:

Fan 1: Pau is soft! He doesn’t care about playing defense! I don’t care if he’s averaging 10 boards per game, the Lakers are a bad rebounding team!

Fan 2: I love Pau.

If you’re Fan 1, know that other basketball fans were judging you. You might want to avert your eyes on March 7, when the Lakers will retire Gasol’s No. 16 jersey – unless you’ve come around.

I hope you have.

Here’s hoping that time and space have enhanced your view of what Gasol accomplished here, arriving in 2008 from Memphis in a stunning trade that immediately qualified the Lakers as contenders – and the next season, helped make them champions. And then again, the season after.

In those Lakers’ 2009 and 2010 NBA title runs, the cerebral, 7-foot Spaniard started all 46 playoff games and averaged a double-double while playing 40 minutes per contest.

He made three of his six career All-Star appearances as a Laker and goes down as having recorded the eighth most offensive rebounds, ninth most defensive rebounds, ninth most blocked shots, 10th most triple-doubles and ninth highest field goal percentage in franchise history.

He averaged 17.7 points, 9.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in the purple and gold. And maybe best of all, he forged an indelible bond with Kobe Bryant – who valued him plenty, describing Gasol as “one of the best post players of all time.”

If ever there were someone who qualified as a basketball authority …

But still, folks loved to brandish the F word – finesse – when they griped about Gasol, who didn’t have the body to bang and didn’t need to. His exquisite skill set allowed him to slip past guys – and to pass to the guys on his side.

He moved like a man who’d chosen between becoming a doctor and a professional basketball player, almost scientific on offense the way he’d use gravity and guile to create space for him and Kobe to work.

With his intellect, his heart and enough “black swan,” he earned the Black Mamba’s trust.

But, yes, there was a softness to Gasol. The good kind. Contagious.

A philanthropist who has set out, in basketball retirement, to eradicate childhood obesity, Gasol has also proved himself an inspiring friend.

“I’m more naturally inclined to show my softness from a personal level and an emotional level, and I think that’s something maybe I influenced (Bryant) to in a way,” Gasol told ESPN in 2021. “I’d say, ‘It’s OK to be normal or act kind and vulnerable or soft at times. We don’t have to be so hard all the time and be on edge all the time.’”

Soon after Bryant’s death, Gasol and his wife booked a flight to California, where he stayed close to Kobe’s widow, Vanessa, and the Bryant children – Gasol’s goddaughters. And when the Gasols’ first child was born, they named her Elisabet Gianna Gasol, a tribute to Gianna Bryant, who was among the nine people who died in the January 2020 helicopter crash.

Now Gasol will be the 11th Laker player to have his number retired, added to a collection that features both Bryant’s Nos. 8 and 24 – as well as fellow former Lakers centers Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal.

A video resurfaced this past week of Bryant, at an Oscars event in 2018, looking forward to seeing it happen.

Kobe Bryant on Pau Gasol getting his jersey retired in the Lakers rafters next to his #NBATwitter #LakeShow https://t.co/uJJPEXmRiI pic.twitter.com/zDWvK6IDhc

— 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙞𝙣’ 𝙉𝘽𝘼 (@_Talkin_NBA) August 17, 2022

“There’s no debate,” Bryant says. “Pau, when he retires, he will have his number in the rafters next to mine. Reality is, I don’t win those championships without Pau. The city of L.A. doesn’t have those two championships without Pau Gasol. We know that, everybody knows that.

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“And I really look forward to the day when he’s there giving his speech at center court, in front of all the fans who supported him over the years. So it’s gonna be an awesome night.”

The Lakers announced their intention to do so Wednesday, on schedule release day, 13 minutes after the news broke of LeBron James’ two-year, $97.1 million contract extension – a development that overshadowed the team’s plans to honor one of the game’s most underrated sidekicks.

But perhaps you were never a big Gasol fan, so the announcement wasn’t going to resonate anyway.

But I have a hunch, with a decade’s distance, even some of those 11,000-some fans who once liked a Facebook page called “I Hate Pau Gasol” have softened their stance on No. 16.

And if not, well, L.A.’s real basketball aficionados are still judging you – and appreciating Gasol.

Beyond thankful and honored!!! #LakersFamily https://t.co/ZhLJgQSqIJ

— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) August 17, 2022

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