It’s the pregame shoot-around of another game and another season. A tall bearded dude with unruly hair and deepening crow’s feet puts up easy jumpers with a deliberate rhythm. Teammates orbit around him like smaller planets, joking, enjoying his presence. Pau Gasol smiles back, a quiet leader, the yin to Kobe’s yang.
Take a good look, Lakers fans. The guy you’ve come to count on, the one who’s been alternately praised by management and dangled as trade bait, may finally be heading out the door.
It’s hard to fathom that Gasol at age 33, will enter free agency for the first time at the end of the season. The man from Barcelona has been with the Lakers since midway through 2007-08, by way of the Memphis Grizzlies. His career began with a rookie contract in 2001 and the extensions have kept on coming.
On Monday, November 25, an even larger free agent question was answered—Kobe Bryant signed a two-year extension with the Lakers. Per Sam Amick of USA Sports, Bryant will earn $23.5 million next season and $25 million for the second year of his extension. That would take him through his 20th season with the team.
Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles recently wrote about the special bond between Bryant and Gasol, the partnership that took them to back-to-back NBA championships and that ultimately led to Bryant’s moving forward in Gasol’s new book, “Life Vida”:
Bryant writes that "If I could choose my brother," it would be Gasol. That "he would have the highest basketball IQ in the league" and "you'd have to search and search and you still would not find another player in the history of the game with his skill set." That "if his organization ever let him down, he would hold his head up high" and "would not lash out or let himself become entangled in the drama."
Of course, the organization has let Gasol down i...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
