Newest bright light in L.A. lets Nuggets know he's a force

By Chris Dempsey
The Denver Post

Pau Gasol pointed the Lakers to a 1-0 series lead over the Nuggets with 36 points. (Lisa Blumenfeld, Getty Images )EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — If you want to make a point, good or bad, about anything concerning Los Angeles, a good place to start is with the "Hollywood" sign atop Mount Lee.

On Feb. 1, the Barcelona newspaper, Sport, was excited. Native son Pau Gasol had just been traded from the unglamorous Memphis Grizzlies to the glitzy L.A. Lakers, a team worthy of the progressive and picturesque city in Spain. Lakers star Kobe Bryant gushed in interviews, and Sport picked up where words could not go, publishing a cartoon that changed the famed Hollywood sign to "Gasollywood."

Absurd? Maybe. But perhaps a step closer after Gasol's near one-man trampling of the Nuggets on Sunday in Game 1 of the teams' first-round playoff series. His 36 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists were the Lakers' most impressive all-around statistical playoff performance since James Worthy's 36-16-10 line in Game 7 of the 1988 NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons.

Even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was on the court for Worthy's monster game, praised the Lakers' newest star in the middle.

"He's a first-rate player," Abdul-Jabbar said Monday. "He's a legitimate all-star player that plays the game very well from the high post."

By Wednesday, the Nuggets will have had 2 1/2 days of questions wondering how they are going to stop the gangly 7-footer. Gasol, meanwhile, was peppered Monday with "How could they leave you so wide open?" queries from the media. He was diplomatic, saying, "Some games go like that, and the next game might go a totally different way."

In that respect, the 27-year-old Gasol is an extension of his coach, Phil Jackson, and his general manager, Mitch Kupchak.

"We don't ever look at one game or one player's performance and say, 'Hey, we're happy,' and kind of sit down and relax," Kupchak said. "That's not how it works."

But it has been more than just Sunday's coming-out party that has L.A. excited. Gasol's transition to the Lakers in midseason was seamless.

Not one bump in the road after the trade, when getting to know new teammates and styles trip up most players, at least for a while.
But Gasol's skill set, which features soft shots, deft passes and a high understanding of the game, made learning Jackson's complex triangle offense look like child's play.

"When you put him in this type of offense, it just opens his game up," Bryant said. "Now he can do what he naturally can do. We just took a fish, took him from out of the water and put him in the water."

There was backlash around the league when Kupchak somehow pried Gasol loose for mediocre center Kwame Brown, rookie guard Javaris Crittenton and two first-round draft picks. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called for a trade approval committee to be set up in the future to prevent such apparent lopsided deals. Nuggets coach George Karl expressed shock as well.

"Without getting into it in great detail, I was very surprised that people would publicly comment in that matter, without naming names," Kupchak said.

None of that matters much now, though.

Kupchak has the No. 1-seeded team in the West, and a player whom he said has the ability to end his career as an all-time great. Gasol began playing basketball at age 9; put up posters of Michael Jordan, Penny Hardaway and Tim Hardaway in his room in his early teens; and helped lead the Spanish national team to the junior world title by age 18.

He was drafted third overall in 2001 by the Atlanta Hawks, who traded him to the then-Vancouver Grizzlies for forward Shareef Abdur-Raheem. Gasol was named rookie of the year with averages of 17.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots. His career numbers for seven seasons in the NBA are nearly the same: 18.8, 8.6 and 1.8.

"I think he probably is what he is statistically," Kupchak said. "We're very happy if he can be just what he is for the next seven to eight years. If he is an 18-20 point a game guy, and eight-10 rebounds per game for the next seven to eight years with his basketball IQ, he could be in the Hall of Fame."

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_9007722

"I think he probably is what he is statistically," Kupchak said. "We're very happy if he can be just what he is for the next seven to eight years. If he is an 18-20 point a game guy, and eight-10 rebounds per game for the next seven to eight years with his basketball IQ, he could be in the Hall of Fame."

Well he was already good even before he got here thou. Great article but i already knew he was a great player, just in a really awful team. Plus at 27 years old he is at the prime of his career another plus. The only thing that could possibly keep him from the HOF i think is injuries.