From Barcelona to Memphis to Athens

Pau Gasol was born and raised in the Spanish city of Barcelona where everythying seems like an accidental work of art, from ordinary lampposts to simple park benches. His mother was a physician and his father works as a hospital administrator.

Despite being almost drowned in all things FC Barcelona, one of Europe's storied and high-profile football clubs, (hello, Ronaldinho) Gasol was never a football fan. Instead, he covered his bedroom walls with NBA posters, mostly with his favorite player, Michael Jordan. He joined Barcelona's junior team and gradually made it to the men's team where he became their main man.

The Atlanta Hawks made him their 3rd pick in the '01 Draft but promptly traded him to Memphis in exchange for Shareef Abdur-Raheem. The Hawks got a legitimate offensive threat in hometown boy Shareef but Memphis was in limbo with what to expect from a 7-foot, 21 year old Spaniard.

Gasol proved his skeptics wrong in his rookie season by playing in all of 82 regular season games, averaging 17.6 points and 8.9 rebounds and named NBA Rookie of the Year.

The 2004 Olympic games in Athens was Gasol's kind of hello-world-I'm-Pau breakout performance. In seven games, he led all players with 22.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks, effectively controlling the post and ambidextrously dunking in abandon. He was the most complete player in the tournament.

After a dominating 5-0 elimination round where they beat eventual champions Argentina and Manu Ginobili, Spain and Gasol got whacked by Team USA in the quarters, 102-94, punctuated by a confrontation between coach Larry Brown and coach Mario Pesquera of Spain after a late US timeout. In the game for 7th place against China, Gasol dropped 37 points.

Gasol plays effortlessly, smoothly runs the floor and reaches for those almost unreachable passes with his long arms. He has the fundamentals and is equipped with an assortment of hooks and spin moves that almost always produces open looks. His main drawback is his lack of defense and his often careless passes that translates to turnovers.

Because he plays in Memphis where the system of play is focused more on team work than individual play, Gasol is somewhat overlooked. But Grizzlies GM Jerry West sees otherwise. He proclaimed Gasol as "the cornerstone of our franchise" and gave him a 6-year, $86-million contract extension.

The Memphis Grizzlies is the exception to a league of superstars. Playing time is split almost equally where nearly everyone plays between 20 to 30 minutes a night. This will end. With the pronouncements of GM West, Pau Gasol has to pump up his game some more and become the superstar that the Grizzlies faithful can call their own.

Looks like Miami is more serious than a heart attack in fortifying their beachfront. They now have Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, James Posey and Jason Williams in their roster and that spells more havoc for the other Eastern conference teams than hurricane Katrina and Rita combined.