Ahead of the release of the docuseries about the Los Angeles Lakers legend called Pau Gasol: It’s About the Journey on Nov. 12, the two-time NBA champion spoke with Lakers Nation about his documentary.
Gasol documented the journey about his decision to retire after a second stint with FC Barcelona. The Spaniard battled through a lingering foot injury and was able to finish his career overseas with the team he started his professional career with back in 1998.
The 41-year-old described what motivated him to make the docuseries, which detailed the end of his career as well as the journey to becoming one of the most successful international players in basketball history.
“I think different things,” Gasol said. “It started with the challenge of dealing with the injury and my body giving up in a way or maybe not giving up, but showing the toll or stress that I put it through throughout my long career.
“How am I going to deal with this? How am I going to approach this? Not just individually, but as a family with my wife with my medical team with my family. How are we going to go about this? One of the things I always prided myself in dealing with uncertainty throughout my career. This was a difficult situation to go through and also the fact that it could’ve been in the end of my career.
“It wasn’t about capturing the rehab process. It was more about sharing values and principles that I live by. It was again dealing with the uncertainty of the outcome and it was also about preparing yourself for the next chapter and not getting stuck with something that has been so meaningful and so present and impactful in my life as my basketball career.
“So that was the motivation and to be able to share it with the world. Show more of the human side because what you see as a basketball player or what you see in the news and luckily I think my reputation has been great throughout my career and people have got to know me because I’ve always tried to be very genuine and authentic in my interviews or everything I’ve done. Kind of guarded as well. Not sharing too much of my private life. I think the docuseries kind of happens to get and capture not just the recovery process, not just the challenge of dealing with injuries and the end of a career, but becoming a father. Dealing with unexpected hardship, the uncertainty of a world pandemic. How you deal with that within your own situation.
“So again, that’s a lot of the motivation and then the docuseries does a very good job of going through my career. Some of my former teammates, coaches, opponents, family and friends.”
Gasol’s four-part docuseries can be seen on Amazon Prime on Nov. 12. It’s a unique look at the former Lakers forward’s basketball career, which touches on a number of different things including Kobe Bryant’s tragic death, Phil Jackson’s impact on his career, and all the challenges he faced throughout his Hall-of-Fame-caliber career.
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