Pau Gasol’s TOP PLAYS of his CAREER + Advice to Luka Doncic: ‘ This is your team’ | NBA Today

Pau Gasol’s TOP PLAYS of his CAREER + Advice to Luka Doncic: ‘ This is your team’ | NBA Today

[Music] As a kid growing up in Spain, I had a dream. I wanted to become a basketball player, play in the NBA. With the third pick, drive, spins in the paint, turn around, shot up and in. Palasol wins the game. Pal Gasol going out there to give Kofi some support. A sevenfooter and a guard in that box. Finds Gasol. Count it. And a foul. [Music] The Lakers repeat backto back titles. He’s never set any limitations to what you can do. Put in the word. Be the best that you can be. There’s no debate how when he retires, he will have his number in the rafters next month. Well, we can’t have POW in studio and not roll out a little NBA today staple. It’s time for your own special edition of Top of the Top. We’re going to look back at some of the best highlights. At least what we think. I’m curious what you think. This is game six. OKC 2010 Kobe off. I mean, yeah, right place, right time. You know, you don’t give up on the play. Call that a Kobe assist and know just pursue it and, you know, put it in. That was a heck of a way to win a series, though. Uh, and then at number four, this is 2009, Lakers in their Sunday whites. You find Lamar ODM over the head dime. Don’t say right place, right time. Yeah, that’s good core vision, good ball movement, good cut by Lamar. and uh was able to find him well over the over the head. Well, what if we what if we go back a little bit farther here to rookie year pow. It’s grainy, but we still see you going baseline and the put back on KG. Oh, and Gary Trent, too. Uhoh. Yeah, you kind of brought that haircut back a little bit. You didn’t talk any trash afterwards, though. You want to You didn’t want to tell KG about that? No, it was enough with a dunk, I think. Oh, I got another dunk. This one in 2005. This is on Dwight in Orlando. Do you ever watch his highlights? He grew a beard in between. Do you watch him back anymore? Uh, you know, my son, my 2-year-old son, loves to watch highlights of Papa. There you go. That’s the perfect way to do it because then it’s like, oh, there’s no ego there. It’s just because you wanted to twist my arm. I’ll do it. At number one, channeled your inner magic Johnson on the break. Yeah, I was going to say, is that power or magic? It’s hard to tell. Right there. Wow. Show your son that one. You seen that one? He’s probably son. I’ll show it. I’ll show it to him again. I’ll say this. It was a no look for style and for show. Well, we know that was wide open. Your son is at home watching with Cat right now. So, so maybe this is good. We’ll clip this one off for you. But you did it all in your basketball career. You won two NBA titles, Olympic gold medals, a FIMA World Cup championship, seven Euro basket medals. So, it’s really a treat that we get to have you here on set. And your impact on the game, it’s worldwide. Literally, there’s still a number 16 jerseys that I see, at least when I’m looking at the Lakers crowd right now. But the Lakers are in a very different moment. They are centered around LeBron James and maybe even more so Luca Donuch, right? You joined a a superstar that was cemented with the Los Angeles Lakers in Kobe Bryant. What similarities, what differences do you see in this tandem of Luca and LeBron and the one that you had with the late great Kobe? Yeah, I mean, there’s some similarities, but uh but it’s very different. And I think uh you know I joined the Lakers when I was 27 years old. I think Kobe was 29 at the time. We’re both I think still pretty around our prime let’s say of our careers. Luca joined the Lakers when he was I think 25. Uh LeBron is now 40. He was 39 when he joined. So uh but at the same time they’re two amazing individual players. Obviously LeBron still has a lot in the tank at 40. More than most people have at 40. Yeah. More than anybody. Exactly. and uh and Luca is one of the greatest players in the league and a guy that uh that the Lakers definitely going to build uh the next 10 years uh franchise around him. So, you got to work together. You got to communicate. You got to you got to build a chemistry and you got to lead your team. And look, they gave Luca the keys. This is Luca’s franchise now. Everything is about building around him for the future. It will be fascinating to see how LeBron James rides in that shotgun seat. He has never rode shotgun in his entire career. Franchises have revolved around him for 20 plus years. That’s not the case now with the Lakers anymore. Yeah, the outlook for the Lakers is kind of hard because this is kind of a one-off season. Eight of their players can be a free agent after this year, including LeBron, which has never been the case. He’s never been at the end of a contract like this in his whole 23-year career. So, I feel like this is a team that can certainly compete in the West. They won 50 games last year. If they stay healthy, they should be right there again this year. But I have no idea what the team that they’re going to build around Luca over the next three years. That’s what his contract extension was for. I don’t know what the team that they’re trying to make, uh, you know, a legacy team around Luca yet. And maybe they don’t either. Yeah, we know what we know, right? Uh, and what we know is that they have the team that they have this year and they got to focus on this year uh, and make the best out of it. They have an opportunity. They have great players. They added the Andiden, a big that also probably wants to prove himself and it’ll be a great target for LeBron and Luca. So, they got to focus on that and and then let the organization and management worry about the next few years. There’s a lot going on at the Los Angeles Lakers currently, but I I wouldn’t want to sign off the show without it’s it’s someone’s birthday today. Very, very special to you, POW. Phil Jackson turns 80 today. Is that right? Yes. Happy happy 80th, Phil. So, we had to say a happy 80th birthday to Phil Jackson. Hey, Pow. harder to do our show or or play with Kobe. Just kidding. Hey, that’s gonna do it for us. We’ll see you tomorrow. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

On NBA Today, we’re delighted to be joined by Spanish and NBA legend Pau Gasol to revisit highlights of his Hall of Fame career. Then, Gasol shares advice for Luka Doncic, drawing from his time with the Los Angeles Lakers.

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