Pau Gasol reflects on the loss of his ‘brother,’ Kobe Bryant

I was driving I was about to get a house in Barcelona, ​​​​he came from watching a basketball game in the north of Barcelona and we were two or three minutes from home, my wife, you know, several are receiving messages for our message of a friend. saying that Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter crash. I couldn't, you know, I didn't really understand what she was saying, but apparently there was some kind of horror that Maya could see that there was this image on her phone, you know? a headline or something, little by little my face, he said, your face turned white, completely white, you know, when she told me and I was driving and suddenly there was silence for the next two minutes.

I heard those words and let it sink into my mind and got home right away. I started to cry. It was difficult to find the words. I couldn't talk to anyone for days. Basically, I didn't leave the house. I just went out. I went home to do some tests on my foot but I had it scheduled so I just went to the clinic, did my CT scan, MRI and came home and then the next time I left my house was to go to the airport and come. here because I felt bad being away from here when I had the chance and it's not easy to travel with crutches in Abood and stuff, but I needed to be here to be with my close family and be available, you know, that's what I told him to Vanessa.

I couldn't imagine the pain she was going through because if I was struggling, you know her

loss

is plural. I couldn't even think about what that felt like and I wouldn't know what to say now, so I mustered up some pain. words and being able to text her and communicate with her and she responded very quickly, which surprised me, you know, and then obviously I appreciated it, you know, and then when I got here I said, come here , cats, here, my wife is here, we. you're here just let us and let us know anything you need, anything you want and I you don't have to come back to us, it's not about now, we'll be here forever, you know, for the kids, for you, the family. because at the end of the day that's what I consider us not to be family, he acted like my older

brother

many times and he could always ask him for advice and run things with him and you know.

He would always give me his opinion and leave, he left a big void for her for her family mainly, you know, I was in daughters, three daughters, even Natalia, although she is 17 years old, in a you know, Lana, about to go to college, but you know, three. -years and in a seventh month year they actually know her father now, so it's one thing the way he impacted the world. I think beyond the world of sports beyond, therefore, beyond the world of basketball, how he touched so many people he inspired. Unfortunately, for a lot of people there have been other tragedies and

loss

es in the world, not just in sports, people don't and their fame is successful, but you know Kobe went beyond what you know and beyond that, and to see Like everyone else, many people can't speak. for everyone honored him, yes, he was, he was super, it was incredibly moving and moving for me because, you see, his impact on this world disappeared at 41 or took him at 41 way ahead of him, oh, it's simply devastating.

To the extent possible, I think it's up to each and every one of us to pick up where we left off to give some continuity to what we've built and been able to do and carry those values ​​and, through that focus and keep life alive. that you know and build it and build it and because that's how you keep things alive, that's how you keep legacies, how you keep people present who are not present by talking about it, keeping it in your thoughts and prayers like keeping it in the cobia conversations was also a guy who shared that message you know life is short you have to make the most of today do the best you can be the best you can be and work to do that you know and then smile I think it was one of the videos What I saw, it was like putting one foot in front of the other, smiling and moving on, and this is one of the moments where you have to do it slowly, step by step, but it wasn't much.

He wasn't a very sentimental and sentimental guy, as we know, he was like to get out of it. I know those soft things and let's get to it, yeah, you know there's no time to waste, he would try to, you know, I guess inspire you and he would encourage you when he needed you to be inspired, he would encourage you but he would also try to intimidate you when he wanted to get the best out of you in one of the first plays of the game here I'm setting the screen, he's chasing Navarro from the baseline. and he just runs, he's not trying to avoid the screen, he's just trying to make me feel it, you know, say if you're going to beat me, this is what he's going to have to take some hits and I'm going to set the tone right now. for his team too and he would go to the leader of the opposing team to the best player.

I'm going to run through you, so that's what you know, you would make statements like that and then when we lost to the Celtics in Oh in the finals and then they beat us in the Olympic finals in China and in 2008 he came to the next preseason training camp and he brought his gold medal to the locker room and put it in my locker. I'm like this mm-hmm, I was trying, it gave me you know that you lost the final last year, which was very painful, you lost the Olympic Games against us, don't let it, don't let it or don't let yourself lose, don't let yourself lose again. and this innocent in this season we have to win the championship, not lose anymore, you can't afford to lose, that's how he motivated me to step forward that season, so anyone and you said that recently, how do you know that he? he would think about these things as a leader as a winner he would think about well what can I do?

What should I do to motivate this guy, this guy, this guy and we won't know and in 2009 we won the championship against Orlando and I won the European Championship, the gold medal with Spain and now it was the best year of my career, without a doubt, and then the next year we won too. That's what that preparation took for him and his teammates. winning and how much is mental, but after the basketball player's career or stage or chapter was over, now he said, okay, everything that was outside of those lines that I stopped myself from doing, I will embrace it and you knew it, and he was beautiful.

It was touching going to games with Gigi to connect with her that bond, you know, I'm sure to be a better husband to Vanessa, I mean all those things that he deprived himself of to make an experience before, he embraced them, he embraced it and he was. It was inspiring and he was beautiful because you could see more of a warmer Kobe, not just a killer Kobe, not just a predator, you know, you could see a father, a husband, even a friend, you know, it hurts in many levels.