Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Sikma, like Gasol, was winning all the team’s shooting games in practice (Sikma was a career 84.9 percent foul shooter and led the league at 92.2 percent in 1987-88), so they finally realized he should shoot some of them in a game. He went from making three 3s in 1987-88 to 82 in 1988-89. The league’s other players listed as centers by Basketball-Reference that season made 88 3s … combined.
Sikma noted the combination of IQ and mobility that the modern game was asking from centers. Often it’s been the smart bigs — Gasol, Horford, Lopez — who held up the best. “There’s two parts to it, your physical skills, how well you can move, and then the second thing is how well you anticipate that the danger is over and it’s time to get your secondary responsibility,” he said.
Anunoby, despite being robbed of an opportunity that some players 15 years his senior never got to experience, remembers that time fondly. He looks back and reflects on all that he learned from his teammates about how to be a pro, how to prepare at the sport’s highest level. The players on that team were so influential on who Anunoby is today that he wanted to list the entire roster, as many as he could recall while put on the spot, to show appreciation for what that experience meant to him as he sat on the sideline and they went to fight on his behalf. “Jeremy Lin was a great teammate,” Anunoby said. “I had Jodie Meeks, Norm Powell, Fred VanVleet, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Kyle Lowry, Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam and Danny Green. I learned a lot from those guys. I learned so much being out.”
In his recent appearance on Monumental Sports Network, new Washington Wizards star Anthony Davis offered high hopes and optimism about his looming frontcourt partnership with Alex Sarr. "I feel like I've always been very successful with another big. The good thing about Alex is that he can space the floor, and on the defensive end it's going to be insane," Davis said about Sarr. "Being able to guard the pick and rolls, switch on guards and guard them, rim protection — I think he's second in the league in blocks right now, blocks per game. He's young, so he's only going to get better. "I just hope that the wisdom that I've learned from the greats I've been around — Dwight [Howard], JaVale McGee, Tyson Chandler, Marc Gasol — all the guys that helped me can carry over to help them as well."
Advertisement
What do you take away from how Marc Gasol and Pau Gasol played defensively? Jaren Jackson Jr.: “Marc would always say that he’s not really athletic like that. He just has to use his hands. He has really good hands and positioning. He conserves his energy for the right moment. I’m assuming that’s how it would be with Pau. But I got to see Marc up close. I really got to see what it’s like not to rely or lean on your gifts all the time. You have to use your brain a lot more.”
But once in Memphis, David Fizdale challenged Marc Gasol. His star did not respond well. Early in 2017, Fizdale benched Gasol in a loss to Brooklyn. One day later, he was fired. The details of the feud were complicated — disagreements about scheme, shifting power dynamics in the organization — but they underscored a truth: Brutal honesty sounds great in theory, but it’s not always a panacea for leadership. You still have to manage personalities and gain trust. You still have to employ a personal touch to pull it off. “I coached him how my high school coach would have coached me, where I tried to tear his ego down to the barest bones in front of the group,” Fizdale told Andscape in 2021. “I got caught up in my own ego and my emotions because I was so frustrated with the losing.”
[Highlight] Klay Thompson: “I actually do have a lot of respect for the grind house, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, and Marc Gasol…This new team though, I don’t know man. They just talk a lot. They’ve always talked a lot, and never really backed it up either. So, I don’t really respect that..."
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Who does Alperen Şengün remind you of? Ryan Hollins: I think he’s a mix between Jokić and Marc Gasol. Obviously, you can see the, you know, the Jokić with the passing, but height wise, he’s probably closer to Marc. And I think a lot of people forget how good, really good Marc Gasol was, and I had to go against him in the playoffs and whatnot, so I know. But he’s got wiggle that’s unique for a European big man. Like, he, he got wiggle like he’s, like, grew up playing in the States, and if, you watch him, he has a different type of flair. But for me, and I’ll give you another name that you want in the Luis Scola. Scola would get you in that short roll, throw the little swoop shots, you know, extremely efficient with what he does. You know, wouldn’t jump off the ground too far if he didn’t need to. So I think a little bit of that and a guy who would put the ball on the deck, you know?
Advertisement
Bennett Durando: Adelman on possibly playing more drop w/Jokic: "He won't be just at the rim like he's Gobert ... I think what we're trying to create with him, he's so high-IQ, is the Marc Gasol model where he's choosing his levels depending on the quality of player or what the player does well."
Marc Gasol: "Look, I don’t have many needs in life, but I do have some, right? One of them is my family — my kids and my wife. Also my parents and my siblings, but the ones who live with me day to day are my wife and kids. They stayed in Spain, and I had to fly to Orlando and spend more than three months without seeing them. They couldn’t travel, they couldn’t enter the bubble. All the teams — I think there were 22 of us — were competing in what they called ‘the bubble.’ No one could enter, no one could leave. We were playing in these warehouse-type venues surrounded by screens, like it was the Kings League. You’re out there competing without being able to see your family, and for me, they’re a source of energy and stability — which I didn’t have. I stopped enjoying what I was doing. I got stuck in a routine: one day a game, the next day off. Always the same. You’d go out, take a walk, grab a coffee, walk around the lake... Groundhog Day. And under those conditions, I wasn’t having a good time. I need that stability in order to compete — and I didn’t have it."
Jorge Sierra: Jimmy Butler moved ahead of Richard Hamilton in playoff scoring for No. 42 all-time. He also passed all these guys in rebounds for No. 88 in NBA history: Marc Gasol James Worthy Cliff Hagan Rajon Rondo
MARC GASOL: I’m like, ‘What’s wrong with TA?’ He won’t talk to me. We get on the bus, he’s pouting and shit. I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’ They gave it to us. They gave it to me. I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He mad. TONY ALLEN: I’d been politicking to get that award all year, bro. I’m talking about I’m even keeping in tune with the analytics people. I’m like, ‘Yo, they saying I can get it. They saying I can get it.’ And then Train comes in the locker room and was like, ‘TA, come here for a second.’ Grabbed me by the arm. I just know he’s about to tell me something exciting. He was like, ‘Well, we got some good news and some bad news. Which one you want first?’ I said, ‘I want the good news.’ He said, ‘Well, you did make First Team All-Defense.’ I said, ‘Yeah, okay.’ He said, ‘But you didn’t win DPOY.’ It blew me. I’m like, ‘Who won it?’ He said, ‘Marc.’ I said, ‘Oh, hell no.’ Marc got about a four-day mute action. He got some “what up” with a whole lot of “what up.” MARC GASOL: I said, ‘What the fuck did I do, brother?’ TONY ALLEN: I knew for a fact we were the best defensive team that whole year. You couldn’t score on us. No trick plays, no out-of-timeout bullshit, no ISO plays. Nothing. You couldn’t do shit with me and dude in that pick and roll.”