Pau Gasol

Darius Miles (0:01)

First, man, we appreciate you coming on the show. Big fan of your game. Versatile jump hook, left, right, you know. Hated seeing all that, but appreciate you coming on the show, rocking with us, bro.

Pau Gasol (0:13)

Thank you, D. Appreciate you having the opportunity to chat with you guys and having me over.

Darius Miles (0:17)

When you first got to the league, who was the first person to bust your ass?

Pau Gasol (0:20)

Oh, shit. It was, I'm sure, many in different ones, but I guess the first few games, even during preseason, I got to play against the Lakers. They just became champions, and Shaq was just an absolute force.

Force. I'm like, I'm not going to guard this dude. No one really could, really. At that time, teams had two or three guys, just big bodies, just to foul them on their rosters. And then I remember also the first couple of games, I played against Detroit, I think that was my first official regular season. They had Cliff Robinson, and he was tough. Uncle Cliff was tough. Yeah, stressful. Strong dude, just he wanted to make a point, too. And then third game was against KG, and he wanted to make a point. He was like, hey, welcome to the league. You know, I was a high pick, and everybody was just like, let's see what this guy is made of.

Darius Miles (1:20)

Yeah.

Pau Gasol (1:21)

They were testing me.

Darius Miles (1:22)

Yeah.

Pau Gasol (1:22)

And I'm like, all right, this is what it's going to be. So I'm going to have to stand up for myself and go at all these dudes. Yeah.

Quentin Richardson (1:29)

Exactly. Yo, yo, yo, we live on location. Me and the Blackest One out here in the Bay Area, NBA All-Star 2025 Hey, man, we got a very special guest today. Two-time NBA champion. You know what I'm saying? Gold medal winner. We got Spain's finest. We got Mr. Pau Gasol in the building. We appreciate you pulling up on him, big fella. We got it done. We've been trying to get this done for a long time. We got it done. Big fella pulled up, y'all.

Pau Gasol (2:00)

Appreciate it.

Darius Miles (2:15)

Born in Barcelona, your mom and dad played basketball, but you kind of fell in love with rugby first.

Pau Gasol (2:22)

Yeah, well, that was in my town. That was kind of the sport that my town was known for. Rugby, we had a good rugby team in the first division in Spain. So my school was kind of an all-sport school, so I gave it a try, just like I played soccer. Were you nice?

I was called straight trash. No, it's just, no, it's just, I was just too tall, too skinny.

Quentin Richardson (2:46)

That's what I was gonna ask, like were you always already taller than everybody?

Pau Gasol (2:49)

Yeah, I was, I was. And I was pretty skinny at the time, and I was pretty skinny until, pretty much I came in the league, came in at 220 pounds in the league.

Quentin Richardson (3:01)

I was seven feet 220 I came in as a rookie, 225

Pau Gasol (3:05)

Right, yeah.

Quentin Richardson (3:05)

6'5.

Pau Gasol (3:06)

Yeah, it was about.

Darius Miles (3:07)

About 90 when I came in.

Quentin Richardson (3:08)

Yeah, right.

Darius Miles (3:09)

He was a little bit 190 pounds.

Quentin Richardson (3:11)

You know, I remember at the combine when you got to do the little. Yeah. He did zero.

Pau Gasol (3:17)

French press?

Quentin Richardson (3:18)

He did zero. He couldn't get the bar up. Zero.

Pau Gasol (3:21)

How much weight? Just the bar?

Quentin Richardson (3:22)

The bar, zero. That's how skinny and weak he was. Little high schooler.

Darius Miles (3:29)

That wasn't true. That is true. That's not true.

Pau Gasol (3:31)

It's okay.

Quentin Richardson (3:32)

How many you need?

Pau Gasol (3:32)

We got to find some video.

Darius Miles (3:33)

A couple of them. Tell us how big is the Barcelona and Real Madrid...

Pau Gasol (3:41)

Rivalry.

Darius Miles (3:41)

Rivalry is.

Pau Gasol (3:42)

Yeah. It's big. And it's one of the biggest rivalries, I think, across sports, really. I mean, you can say Celtics, Lakers, you can say Red Sox, Yankees. So, Real Madrid, Barcelona, it's a huge rivalry. It's always what we call the classico. When we play against each other, and those games are so much fun. And I remember there's the atmosphere, the level of tension, the fans getting into it.

It was, to me, it was a lot of fun kind of growing up.