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What do you take away from how Marc Gasol and Pau Gasol played defensively? Jaren Jackson Jr.: “Marc would always say that he’s not really athletic like that. He just has to use his hands. He has really good hands and positioning. He conserves his energy for the right moment. I’m assuming that’s how it would be with Pau. But I got to see Marc up close. I really got to see what it’s like not to rely or lean on your gifts all the time. You have to use your brain a lot more.”
But once in Memphis, David Fizdale challenged Marc Gasol. His star did not respond well. Early in 2017, Fizdale benched Gasol in a loss to Brooklyn. One day later, he was fired. The details of the feud were complicated — disagreements about scheme, shifting power dynamics in the organization — but they underscored a truth: Brutal honesty sounds great in theory, but it’s not always a panacea for leadership. You still have to manage personalities and gain trust. You still have to employ a personal touch to pull it off. “I coached him how my high school coach would have coached me, where I tried to tear his ego down to the barest bones in front of the group,” Fizdale told Andscape in 2021. “I got caught up in my own ego and my emotions because I was so frustrated with the losing.”
[Highlight] Klay Thompson: “I actually do have a lot of respect for the grind house, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, and Marc Gasol…This new team though, I don’t know man. They just talk a lot. They’ve always talked a lot, and never really backed it up either. So, I don’t really respect that..."
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Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Who does Alperen Şengün remind you of? Ryan Hollins: I think he’s a mix between Jokić and Marc Gasol. Obviously, you can see the, you know, the Jokić with the passing, but height wise, he’s probably closer to Marc. And I think a lot of people forget how good, really good Marc Gasol was, and I had to go against him in the playoffs and whatnot, so I know. But he’s got wiggle that’s unique for a European big man. Like, he, he got wiggle like he’s, like, grew up playing in the States, and if, you watch him, he has a different type of flair. But for me, and I’ll give you another name that you want in the Luis Scola. Scola would get you in that short roll, throw the little swoop shots, you know, extremely efficient with what he does. You know, wouldn’t jump off the ground too far if he didn’t need to. So I think a little bit of that and a guy who would put the ball on the deck, you know?
Bennett Durando: Adelman on possibly playing more drop w/Jokic: "He won't be just at the rim like he's Gobert ... I think what we're trying to create with him, he's so high-IQ, is the Marc Gasol model where he's choosing his levels depending on the quality of player or what the player does well."
Marc Gasol: "Look, I don’t have many needs in life, but I do have some, right? One of them is my family — my kids and my wife. Also my parents and my siblings, but the ones who live with me day to day are my wife and kids. They stayed in Spain, and I had to fly to Orlando and spend more than three months without seeing them. They couldn’t travel, they couldn’t enter the bubble. All the teams — I think there were 22 of us — were competing in what they called ‘the bubble.’ No one could enter, no one could leave. We were playing in these warehouse-type venues surrounded by screens, like it was the Kings League. You’re out there competing without being able to see your family, and for me, they’re a source of energy and stability — which I didn’t have. I stopped enjoying what I was doing. I got stuck in a routine: one day a game, the next day off. Always the same. You’d go out, take a walk, grab a coffee, walk around the lake... Groundhog Day. And under those conditions, I wasn’t having a good time. I need that stability in order to compete — and I didn’t have it."
Jorge Sierra: Jimmy Butler moved ahead of Richard Hamilton in playoff scoring for No. 42 all-time. He also passed all these guys in rebounds for No. 88 in NBA history: Marc Gasol James Worthy Cliff Hagan Rajon Rondo
MARC GASOL: I’m like, ‘What’s wrong with TA?’ He won’t talk to me. We get on the bus, he’s pouting and shit. I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’ They gave it to us. They gave it to me. I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He mad. TONY ALLEN: I’d been politicking to get that award all year, bro. I’m talking about I’m even keeping in tune with the analytics people. I’m like, ‘Yo, they saying I can get it. They saying I can get it.’ And then Train comes in the locker room and was like, ‘TA, come here for a second.’ Grabbed me by the arm. I just know he’s about to tell me something exciting. He was like, ‘Well, we got some good news and some bad news. Which one you want first?’ I said, ‘I want the good news.’ He said, ‘Well, you did make First Team All-Defense.’ I said, ‘Yeah, okay.’ He said, ‘But you didn’t win DPOY.’ It blew me. I’m like, ‘Who won it?’ He said, ‘Marc.’ I said, ‘Oh, hell no.’ Marc got about a four-day mute action. He got some “what up” with a whole lot of “what up.” MARC GASOL: I said, ‘What the fuck did I do, brother?’ TONY ALLEN: I knew for a fact we were the best defensive team that whole year. You couldn’t score on us. No trick plays, no out-of-timeout bullshit, no ISO plays. Nothing. You couldn’t do shit with me and dude in that pick and roll.”
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Marc Gasol on being traded by Memphis to Toronto: They said ‘okay we're going to try to find you a contender’, and they found a good one, a really good one in Toronto. Really good team that they just needed the extra piece that was going to put them over the top. They sent me there and it broke my heart a little bit to be honest. If it was up to me I would have stayed at Memphis my whole career and even though that probably would have meant that I would have never got a championship but I would have stayed in Memphis for sure.
Who influenced your game growing up? Any favorite players or role models? I know your father and uncle both played professionally SA: Having family members that played, I got a lot of insight, which was good. But I didn’t really need to play. I never got to see them play. So players I actually got to see play—I would say Kobe [Bryant] and Pau [Gasol] were, you know, the first big duo I watched. Pau being Spanish and Kobe being one of the best ever. But then also Marc [Gasol]. A lot of national team basketball players and funny enough, Grizzlies players, too. And then Dirk Nowitzki. He’s just, I don’t know, a guy I’ve always liked—how he played, what he was about. So I think those three, four guys are probably my main references in basketball. Like I said, I don’t know, the game has always been part of my family and natural for me. So just anything—I think the greatest game of basketball is something I enjoy.
In the latter stage of your career, have you ever thought about getting your jersey retired with the other members of the Memphis Grizzlies Grit and Grind era, like Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, and Tony Allen? Conley: If I’m able to get my jersey retired like those guys, that would be awesome. I hadn’t been able to think about it too much because I’m trying to celebrate the guys that do get it, and I’m still in the middle of my career. It would probably be one of my highest achievements other than winning a championship to have something like that happen in Memphis.
Drew Hill: Rockets coach Ime Udoka was asked if they show Sengun clips of Marc Gasol defensively: "No we did not show Alpy Marc Gasol, but if I'm not mistaken I think he won (DPOY) and didn't get first-team that year. If I'm remembering correctly. "It was a weird year. I found it a little weird that (Gasol) got it. I remember playing against him a ton in San Antonio. So, I'll leave that there."