Kobe Bryant liked to tell people he didn’t have time for friends. Not conventionally, most people have friends where they talk regularly or have a meal when they are in the same part of town.
At any moment, Bryant even marked the slogan: “Friends hang sometimes, banners hang forever.”
Pau Gasol heard him say that all the time.
“Yes, he would always say, ‘I don’t have time for friends. I’m too busy to achieve, to be the best there or to achieve greatness. I don’t have time for sentimental things, “Gasol said.” He would say that publicly and there was some truth in that. But … “
Gasol knew the truth.
Beneath all those harsh discussions was a father sensitive to four daughters who would always be there when Gasol called.
“It’s the closest thing to an older brother I’ve ever had in my life,” Gasol said.
They didn’t take selfies together when they met for dinner in the last years of their careers or after Bryant retired from the NBA in 2016. The only close trace of how close the relationship between Bryant and Gasol came was especially in form of hashtags #hermano – Spanish for brother – on Twitter or Instagram.
Gasol didn’t need a shout. He already knew how close his and Bryant’s friendship was. But he’s proud to have made Bryant open up and show the world that part of him.
“You could see his toughness, care, desire, hunger, Mamba mentality … But he also had a very kind, very loving side.”
Pau Gasol on Kobe Bryant
“You could see his toughness, weight, desire, hunger, Mamba mentality – being the best of all time, he works harder than anyone else,” Gasol said. “But she also had a very kind, very loving side.”
In the last stages of his career, Bryant began to drop the veil so easily and let the world see what Gasol did.
“I am more naturally inclined to show my softness on a personal and emotional level and I think it is something that I have influenced in a way,” Gasol said. “I would say, ‘It’s okay to be normal or to act kind and vulnerable or sometimes soft. We don’t have to be so tough all the time and always be on hand. “
Matt Barnes didn’t know that Gasol had made Bryant open, but he certainly noticed when it started to happen.
“I remember once I was on a bus in Phoenix and I asked Kobe, ‘Why doesn’t the rest of the world get to see how strong you are, Mom … said Barnes, who played with Bryant and Gasoline from 2010 to ’12. “I literally put that question in front of everyone. And Kobe told me, ‘I can’t show these mothers …
“I think that was part of the Mamba mentality. But when you made him let his guard down or once you managed to get into the wall, you know, Kobe was great as —. But I had to see that side. “
It’s still hard for Gasol to talk about Bryant’s death. Mentioned on January 26, and Gasol’s mind returns when he first heard about the crash of the helicopter that killed the former Los Angeles Lakers, his daughter Gianna and seven others.
He was in Spain at the time, with his wife, Cat, driving home when her phone started receiving news alerts and text messages.
“You’re starting to go into a trance where you’re completely frozen,” he said. “You are stuck in complete shock. You can’t believe it. For days, weeks, I still didn’t want to believe it.
“You still thought that Kobe could have gotten out of that accident on his own and taken his daughter – and if there were other survivors – with him to the hospital.
“I had that perception of him as so strong, as invincible. If anyone could survive, it was him.”
Gasol said he cried for days, numb and broken, and suddenly shocked. But very quickly he knew what to do.
“I just booked a flight [to California]”, he said.” I decided we had to be there and left. I didn’t know if we were leaving for a week, two weeks or a month, but we had to be there.
“We wanted to be close to Vanessa and the kids and be there, like Uncle Pau, for whatever they needed.”
Pau Gasol in the days after the helicopter crashed
“We wanted to be close to Vanessa and the kids and be there, like Uncle Pau, for whatever they needed.”
Diesel spent several months near Bryants House in Orange County, often checking on the family and trying to support them through the inconceivable tragedy.
Uncle Pau sent flowers to Vanessa in what would have been the couple’s 19th wedding anniversary in April and a birthday cake in what would have been Gianna’s 14th birthday in May.
Gasols and Bryants went on a boat trip through San Francisco Bay in August and dressed up as Star Wars characters for Halloween. And when Gasol’s first child was born in September, they named her after Gianna.
“My daughter’s full name is Elisabet Gianna Gasol,” he said. “It’s a way, not only to honor Gianna, but to always have them present. They are our family and how can you have them more present than having them in the name of your daughter or son?
“I had more problems with her first name than her first name. It represents so much, the name. The kindness, the heart that Gianna had, the talent, only with the toughness that she showed. Her father and her mother in she is something that has a lot of meaning for us and that’s why her name is Elisabet Gianna “.
Gasol went to Gianna Bryant’s basketball games over the years and watched her talent flourish.
“It could have changed women’s basketball,” Gasol said. “We hope this will continue to happen, but it was so significant, so important to the game in what it could have meant. So, I think it’s up to us to have her present and not let her pass away as much as it could have had an impact. “
In this Gasol finds comfort now, almost a year after the death of Kobe and Gianna.
There is still sadness and shock. He says he will never go by helicopter.
“Every time I see one, it triggers me,” he said.
But Gasol said he knows he’s doing exactly what his older brother would have wanted him to do: look for Vanessa and her three daughters and help others learn from the legacy that Kobe and Gigi they left her behind.
“He cared deeply about sharing his knowledge, inspiring others, touching people’s lives,” Gasol said.
Bryant’s desire to connect with others reminded Gasol of how she first connected with him. They had known each other as competitors early in their careers as Bryant won championships with Shaquille O’Neal in Los Angeles and Gasol was trying to get the Memphis Grizzlies over the hump.
Then, a chance encounter changed the course of both their lives. In the summer of 2007, Bryants happened to hit Gasol while on holiday in his native Barcelona while training in their hotel’s gym.
“It’s crazy how that happened,” Gasol said. “There has been talk of him leaving the Lakers and being replaced in Chicago. There were also discussions about me, because I wanted to be in a different situation from Memphis at that time and about the direction the franchise was taking.
“So I said, ‘Well, maybe one day we’ll play together. You never know. “In my mind, I couldn’t register the Grizzlies trading me with the Lakers. But then, a few months later, when I thought it wouldn’t happen, he did. And I got to him and Lakers in a perfect way. The moment things clicked and they came together right away and we had incredible moments. “
However, there was no celebration after the amazing mid-season deal, which would result in three consecutive NBA Finals and two Lakers titles.
No, Bryant knocked on Gasol’s hotel room door at 1:30 in the morning and told him what it would be like.
“I landed in Washington the first night to join the team, and after I was physically fit, he came to my room and said, ‘Hey, I’m so glad I got you. Very happy that you are here, but now let’s go and win a championship “, said Gasol.
“I mean, it just doesn’t get clearer than that. He made sure I knew where he was right away. There’s no confusion: ‘That’s what I want. Here I am and here I am, you’re going to have to be. Now, will you be on him?’ Will you be on board or not? ‘”
Gasol was ready.
“I really wanted the chance,” he said. “This was my chance and I wasn’t going to waste it.”
During their first game together, Bryant was even more focused. He fed Gasol early to get him moving and often spoke to him in Spanish on the field – so that their opponents could not understand them – and generally kept that demanding nature every minute of every game in the game. the six seasons they played together.
“It could be difficult. There is no doubt about it,” Gasol said.
This is a nice way to say it.
“There would be times when I should go put my arm around Pau and tell him he’ll be fine,” Barnes said. “Because [Bryant] he would make this mother in any language you can imagine. “
This is how Gasol will remember Bryant as a player. Weight, determination, direct photos through the media (remember that the whole Black Swan-White Swan Bryant narrative rotated to motivate Gasol to be more aggressive and physical?).
But not as his older brother will remember.
“Our relationship seemed to be meant to come together for some reason,” Gasol said. “And now, after the loss of him and Gigi, he brought us much closer to what he meant to me, who he was, what he offered to my life and obviously to his family and now to my family, as I consider them. I.
“He was someone I would miss for the rest of my life, but I will present him in everything I do.”