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HoopsHype ranks the 40 greatest European basketball players in history, led by the likes of Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Pau Gasol and various other stars.
Outside of North America, Europe is by far the biggest basketball hotbed in the world – as proved by the large contingent of players from the Old Continent in the NBA in the last three decades.
When we put together our list of the 78 greatest international players ever, more than half of those who made the cut were Europeans.
Here’s how we ranked them:
Pau Gasol and crew will be experiencing a big addition just months from now.
Back in the day, Pau Gasol transformed what had been a mediocre and frustrating Los Angeles Lakers team in the mid-2000s into one that instantly reached the NBA Finals three straight times and won back-to-back world championships.
Fans will never forget the news flash that faithful afternoon on Feb. 1, 2008, that the Lakers had landed Gasol in a trade that, at the time, seemed very lopsided.
Years later, Gasol has received full recognition for his accomplishments in the Purple and Gold by getting his jersey retired by the team and being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Ever since announcing his retirement in 2021, he has settled into a family-oriented life with his wife, daughter and son. The clan has now announced on social media that it will be welcoming another child just months from now.
New Rookie signing! Gasol starting 5, coming this fall 2024 season. 🧔🏻♂️👩🏼👧🏻👦🏼👶🏻 pic.twitter.com/D5RN0NbKu2
— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) July 28, 2024
Gasol could very well be the most underrated and underappreciated star in Lakers history. But these days, it seems his legacy has only gotten greater the further we have gotten away from the end of his tenure with the organization.
Olympic basketball ignites a competitive fire like no other national team competition. Most of the best NBA players have made at least one appearance at the Games. Some others without NBA experience have become legends in their own right due to …
Olympic basketball ignites a competitive fire like no other national team competition. Most of the best NBA players have made at least one appearance at the Games. Some others without NBA experience have become legends in their own right due to their performances on the Olympic courts alone.
According to the HoopsHype crew, these are the best 15 players in the history of the competition. For this exercise, we’re rewarding players who played and excelled in multiple Olympic tournaments.
Lakers Hall of Fame big man Pau Gasol got to hold the famed Olympic torch when the 2024 Summer Games kicked off on Friday.
The opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris was held on Friday, and it was an exciting event that celebrated many different nations and athletes.
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James bore the United States flag during the event, and it will likely become one of the proudest moments of his life. He became the first male basketball player in Olympic history to do so.
But he wasn’t the only Lakers legend who took part in the ceremony. Hall of Fame big man Pau Gasol got to hold the famed Olympic torch while at the Athlete’s Village, and he posted a video on social media of himself doing so.
It has been an unforgettable experience to arrive at the Athlete's Village with the Olympic torch 🙌♥️ #Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/9pPMUIYEm8
— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) July 26, 2024
Gasol was, at times, underappreciated during his time with the Lakers. But he transformed them from a franchise stuck in mediocrity to one that instantly reached the NBA Finals three straight times and captured back-to-back Larry O’Brien Trophies, including one over the Boston Celtics.
He was just named to ESPN’s list of the top 25 NBA players of the 21st century. In addition to his two NBA titles, he also won two Olympic silver medals while winning the gold at the 2006 FIBA World Championship for his native Spain.
The Spanish superstar had a blast in Madrid.
Celebrities and athletes have been flocking to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour for over a year. Blake Lively was in attendance on the first night in Madrid on Wednesday, and one of Spain’s greatest — if not the greatest — basketball players was in the crowd as well.
Pau Gasol, the two-time NBA champion and former star of the Grizzlies, Lakers, Bulls and Spurs made the trip to the home of Real Madrid to take in the mega-popular concert.
After the show, Gasol took to social media to share his appreciation, saying, “Last night was a Fairytale @taylorswift13” with a handful of emojis.
Last night was a Fairytale @taylorswift13 👏🏼✨🧚 🫶🏼 pic.twitter.com/Pq7A3EBV97
— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) May 30, 2024
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Pau Gasol opened up on how he dealt with his feelings after he was nearly traded for Chris Paul back in 2011.
In the 2010-11 season, the Los Angeles Lakers’ bid for a third straight NBA championship failed when they were swept in the second round of the playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks. Their roster was getting long in the tooth, and an infusion of talent and energy was needed to get them back into the league’s upper echelon.
After a lockout was lifted in late autumn, executive Mitch Kupchak struck a trade agreement with the then-New Orleans Hornets that would’ve landed them Chris Paul in return for Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.
That deal would’ve radically changed the complexion of the Lakers and likely made them title contenders again. But it was vetoed by NBA commissioner David Stern, as the league had recently taken over ownership of the Hornets.
While Odom was reportedly inconsolable upon hearing the team tried to trade him, Gasol said on the “LADE Show with Odom and Aron Cohen” that he found a way to stay focused on his craft and his team.
“From my perspective, I went in and had a meeting with Mitch (Kupchak) and Mike Brown who was the coach and I said to myself: I love this city, I love this team, I understand why you guys might’ve decided to go that route. Would I agree with it or not obviously I’m not gonna get into that, but I’m gonna control what I can control and I’m gonna still be grateful and thankful to be here and I’m gonna do my best to help this team as I have done in the past.
“But it was difficult, because you can’t shake that off that easily as much as I tried in many ways. Because now its like this can happen. This can happen yesterday, this can happen tomorrow.”
Because of his hurt feelings, Odom was traded days later to the Mavs for a first-round draft pick, while Gasol ended up playing three more seasons with the Purple and Gold. During that time, the Hall of Fame big man was subjected to at least one other trade rumor, not to mention criticism from Lakers fans who accused him of being soft, but he kept his head up during that time and did his job well.
These pairs are going to be fun to watch.
The second signature event of the PGA Tour’s 2024 season is here as a loaded field of 80 pros has descended upon Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula.
The amateurs in the field will play alongside their partners for the first two rounds — one at Pebble Beach, one at Spyglass Hill — before it’s just the pros at Pebble Beach over the weekend.
Among the world’s best in the field are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa.
Pebble Pro-Am: Picks to win, odds | Sleepers
As for the amateurs, here are nine star-studded pairings for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
A look at one of the greatest Lakers teams that didn’t win the NBA championship.
The Los Angeles Lakers are arguably the NBA’s most storied franchise by virtue of their 17 world championships. They’ve been so successful over the decades that even when they haven’t won it all, they have had some impressive squads that were memorable, not to mention talented, star-studded and very competitive.
Heading into the 2007-08 season, the Lakers were stuck in mediocrity, and it looked like there was no way out for them. But general manager Mitch Kupchak waved his magic wand and made them into title contenders once again, and his moves were enough to get them back into the upper echelon of the NBA right away.
Former NFL star Richard Sherman thinks new Lakers big man Christian Wood is worthy of being compared to one of the team’s Hall of Famers.
Big man Christian Wood is now a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, and although it is a gamble, it could pay off big if he accepts his new role.
Over the last few years, Wood had been a featured player, first with the Houston Rockets and then with the Dallas Mavericks last season. He averaged 18.1 points and 8.9 rebounds a game while shooting 50.9% from the field and 38.1% from 3-point range during that span, which are certainly excellent numbers.
But former NFL star cornerback and current “Undisputed” commentator Richard Sherman, who is a long-time Lakers fan, went overboard when he compared Wood to a former Hall of Fame Lakers big man (h/t The Cold Wire).
.@RSherman_25 likens the Lakers acquisition of Christian Wood to Pau Gasol: pic.twitter.com/94OMoBgf0L
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) September 6, 2023
“Pau Gasol, a Lakers great, jersey just went in the rafters — during his Lakers career averaged 18 (points) and nine (rebounds), or 18 and 10. This boy coming in is averaging 18 and nine over the last three years — 38 percent shooting from three — I feel like he’s going to be a great asset. I don’t understand why we got him for this price.”
The price the Lakers signed Wood for is reportedly $5.7 million over two years, which seems like an incredible bargain for such a potent offensive player. However, he has a reputation for being an abysmal defender and for an attitude of self-entitlement, which is why he was available for the NBA equivalent of crumpled-up $1 bills found under one’s couch cushions.
Wood is a very good NBA player, at least offensively. But he is certainly no Gasol, who had 1,001 ways to score, especially in the post, and had numerous big games in the playoffs to help L.A. win back-to-back world championships in 2009 and 2010.
Stephen A. Smith regrets going on his infamous rant about Kwame Brown just after the big man was traded for Lakers Hall of Famer Pau Gasol.
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Former Los Angeles Lakers star big man Pau Gasol is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and it was a well-deserved honor.
While the Lakers and the late Kobe Bryant helped unleash Gasol’s full potential, Gasol also rescued the organization from the grim mediocrity it was stuck in.
It traded for him in February 2008. At the time, it had gone through three and a half years of being stuck between a rock and a hard place following Shaquille O’Neal’s departure. The one player who perhaps symbolized this purgatory more than anyone else was Kwame Brown.
Arguably the biggest bust in NBA history, Brown was an albatross keeping the Lakers down. His lack of an offensive game, lack of heart and inability to catch simple passes frustrated many fans on a nightly basis.
When Brown was traded in the Gasol deal, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith gave a scathing criticism of his game. Although some claim it was hyperbolic, it’s hard to argue with what Smith said.
In the years since, Smith has had more harsh but true things to say about Brown, and eventually Brown fired back at the commentator.
While on “Podcast P with Paul George,” Smith actually pulled back a bit and regretted going off on the former Laker (h/t Lakers Nation).
“Kwame Brown, I wish I could do that over. I wouldn’t do it. I know what I said, I did mean it. I ain’t gonna sit here and tell you I ain’t mean the (expletive) I said. But I didn’t know it was gonna be like this. (…) Remember I said it before Twitter, Facebook. I didn’t know, 15 years later they gonna have memes and videos and when I see what he says I realize how hurt he is. I mean it was a sound bite, they had just traded for Pau Gasol, they asked me this question and I’m psssh, what?
“One time I had to address it cause I felt like he was coming at me like I was scared. I can’t even tell you when I did that, the stars who called. I ain’t gonna mention no names, practically all of them was Hall of Famers and they’re like ‘nah’ and I was like where were y’all when he was saying all of this stuff for weeks, you know I didn’t say anything. (…) And as I see some of the clips now and some of the stuff that he says I just be like go ahead bro, say what you gotta say.”
While Gasol went on to greater heights and won back-to-back NBA championships following his trade to the Lakers, Brown played for five teams over the next five-and-a-half years. He was out of the league following the 2012-13 season.
Today, it seems he is more well-known for his social media presence and rants than he is for being a former NBA player.
