{"id":620647,"date":"2026-02-23T21:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/620647\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T21:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:28:16","slug":"the-two-nba-players-carlos-alcaraz-said-he-admired-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/620647\/","title":{"rendered":"The two NBA players Carlos Alcaraz said he admired in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Carlos Alcaraz won his 26th career title at the Qatar Open, defeating Arthur Fils in the final.<\/p>\n

French star Fils, who reached his first final since returning from a long injury layoff, simply could not live with the Spaniard, eventually losing the contest 2-6, 1-6.<\/p>\n

It was a dominant performance from Alcaraz, who has now won nine ATP 500 events; the same number that Andy Murray won before his retirement in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Mohamed Farag\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Despite being only 22 years old, Alcaraz is quickly becoming a legend of the sport, just like his compatriot and idol, Rafael Nadal.<\/p>\n

Nadal is far from the only sportsperson Alcaraz admires, as demonstrated by his comments from 2024.<\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz said he admired Pau Gasol and Jimmy Butler in 2024<\/p>\n

During the 2024 Miami Open, Alcaraz attended an NBA game between the Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors, where he met basketball superstars Stephen Curry and Chris Paul.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the ATP Tour<\/a>, Alcaraz discussed his experiences meeting \u2018big celebrities,\u2019 highlighting the influence of Paul Gasol [pictured below, left] and Jimmy Butler.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Jed Jacobsohn\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m lucky to have met some great athletes, and also big celebrities, which in a way continues to really surprise me,\u201d said Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still hard to believe I\u2019m one of those celebrities. But I met Pau Gasol recently, someone who I\u2019d really wanted to meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met him in Las Vegas. He\u2019s really an incredible guy. Jimmy Butler too. Those two have been the most special celebrity encounters I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI admire both him [Jimmy Butler] and Pau Gasol because of that winning mentality, their professionalism, because they want to improve every day and look at the finest of details to become a better athlete.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut above all I admire that they are great people off the court. That\u2019s really very, very important to me, as is having a winning mentality. It\u2019s something to be admired and it\u2019s something I try to learn from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who are Pau Gasol and Jimmy Butler?<\/p>\n

Gasol is widely regarded as the greatest Spanish basketball player in history. Gasol played 18 seasons in the NBA, winning two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers alongside Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n

Gasol, who played primarily as a power forward during his career, retired from his playing career in 2021.<\/p>\n

Butler [pictured below], who was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 2014, is one of the best two-way players in the NBA and has led the Miami Heat to the NBA Finals in 2020 and 2023.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Megan Briggs\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Butler currently plays for the Golden State Warriors alongside Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, Carlos Alcaraz won his 26th career title at the Qatar Open, defeating Arthur Fils in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,13153,329,2596,200,164,313,1536,150,189,6,1673,81796,573],"class_list":{"0":"post-620647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","10":"tag-chicago-bulls","11":"tag-chris-paul","12":"tag-draymond-green","13":"tag-golden-state-warriors","14":"tag-jimmy-butler","15":"tag-kobe-bryant","16":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","17":"tag-miami-heat","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-pau-gasol","20":"tag-paul-gasol","21":"tag-stephen-curry"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116122073847757817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}