Pau Gasol

Pau Gasol is an advisor, an investor and an activist in projects related to sports and well-being. He played professional basketball for 20 years in the NBA, on the Spanish National Team, and in Spain’s ACB league. He is president of the Gasol Foundation, a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission, and a UNICEF Global Champion for Nutrition and Zero Childhood Obesity.

Pau Gasol began his professional basketball career at FC Barcelona. In those early years the team won the ACB league championship twice (1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons) and won Spain’s Copa del Rey de Baloncesto once (2000-2001).

When he returned to the club 20 years later (in 2021), at the request of coach Saras Jasikevicius, the team finished second in the EuroLeague. Later that year, he announced his retirement from professional basketball.

From 2017 to 2020 he was vice-president of the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association). He was one of the few players on its Executive Committee who hadn’t previously been in the NCAA. For 65 years the NBPA has been protecting the rights and defending the interests of NBA players. It also gives out some annual prizes, the Players Voice Awards (in 2015 Pau received the Global Impact Player award).

In 2001, Pau was selected in the third round of the NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks, who then transferred those rights to the Memphis Grizzlies. Pau became only the second Spanish player to reach the NBA. During his first season with the Grizzlies, he earned the Rookie of the Year award, becoming the first non-US player to receive this distinction.

In 2006, Pau was the first Spanish player to take part in an NBA All-Star Game, in Houston, marking the first of his six appearances in this unique event. After moving to the L.A. Lakers in February of 2008, Pau won two NBA championships, one in 2009 and one in 2010.

As a member of the Spanish national basketball team, Pau has earned numerous distinctions, including three Olympic medals: in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. He also helped Spain win gold in the 2006 FIBA World Championship, where he was named MVP. And, he helped Spain win three European Championships (2009, 2011 and 2015), earning the MVP award in two of them. During the 2017 Eurobasket, Pau became the highest scorer of all time in a single year. In the summer of 2021 he competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games, his fifth Games. During the Tokyo Games, he was elected by the Olympic Athletes to represent them as a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission. He is currently serving an eight-year term on the commission.