“I want to remember two people. Montse Peris, the one who first instilled competitiveness in me. And Miguel López Abril, a brutally honest person, who told me that physically I was a brunette and didn’t lie, and that I would have to use my head.”, Marc Gasol said after receiving the award that recognizes him as a member of the Spanish Hall of Fame. Words from a basketball man surrounded by basketball people, who recognized him with one of the biggest ovations of the night. His figure deserves it. Although in the Hall of Fame no one, by definition, is one more, in Marc’s case it is more than evident. He is the best center in the history of Spain and that, in a country with such an extensive list of historical players, are big words.
The middle of the Gasol brothers had it in his genes, but His landing in professional basketball was not surrounded by fireworks like that of other stars of his generation such as Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernández, Ricky Rubio or, of course, his brother Pau. Marc had to break ground in his beginnings before finally exploding in 2006 with his arrival in Girona, a city that has not stopped being his home even though it was thousands of kilometers away.
“The work, the ambition and the effort are good. But luck is necessary and I have been part of great groups with great references. With coaches who have taught me how to compete, how to face victory and defeat.”Marc explained in this new recognition of his career as a player. He thus joins Pau in the Hall of Fame firmament. Also to Garbajosa himself and others with whom he shared the field, jersey, sweat and tears, most of the time with joy, sometimes also with sadness, in his journey with the Spanish National Team. There are Navarro, José Manuel Calderón and Felipe Reyes. And those to come. All of them built an unrepeatable team of which Marc was an indispensable part many summers, until achieving nine medals: two Olympic silvers, five in Eurobasket, including two golds, and the two world championships that our country has, in 2006 and 2019.. He is, along with Rudy Fernández, the only Spaniard to be able to show off that achievement: “The opportunity I received with a call in 2006 from Pepu Hernández. They told me that they wanted me to go to the San Fernando rally. I went with little clothing because I didn’t expect to be around much. I learned from Pau and Navarro that I had to enjoy the moment and that’s what I did.”.
‘Big Spain’
In 2008 he headed to the NBA and surely not even the most optimistic at the time could have imagined what he would be able to achieve. Once we exceeded expectations through hard work and a quality and understanding of the game that was clamoring to be shown. He returned to Memphis, where he lived his adolescence with his family when everyone packed their bags. following the pioneering path of his older brother. There he was not only a fundamental figure on the sporting level (thrice all starNBA Best Defender and conference finalist in 2013)also on the social level and as an icon of a culture, the grit and grindsomething like guts and work, of a team against what was (and is) styled in the NBA that hooked an entire city. The Grizzlies retired his jersey in February of this year. But to the history of Big Spainas they called him in the United States, still had a chapter to tell in the best league in the world. The brightest. The 2019 ring with the Toronto Raptors that rounded out the record of a player who from now on is where he belongs: among the greatest of our basketball.
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