Spanish basketball legend Gasol retires (41)

After a 23-year career as a professional basketball, Pau Gasol announced his retirement. “It’s a tough decision but I’ve thought about it carefully,” the basketball player, who has champion status in Spain, said during a press conference. Gasol (41) made his Barcelona debut in 1998 and moved to the NBA three years later, starting with the Memphis Grizzlies and winning the title with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010. He played no less than six times in the All Star Game, a Party competition for the best players in the NBA.

Gasol later played with the Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, and Milwaukee Bucks and was briefly contracted to the Portland Trail Blazers, for which he did not play due to injuries. At the beginning of this year, he returned to Barcelona, ​​who, thanks in part to him, won the title in Spain for the first time in seven years. With his country, he won Olympic silver in 2008 and 2012 and bronze in 2016. After two years of injury, he also took part in last summer’s Tokyo Games, where Spain was knocked out in the quarter-finals by the later winner of the United States.

Gasol played no less than 1,226 NBA games, averaging 17 points. “You have to know when to stop,” he said. “I wanted to do it after a while enjoying as a player and not walking on crutches.”