Pau Gasol and his '16', ready to take care of the Lakers in the Los Angeles Olympus

The Spaniard's shirt will be retired along with that of his 'brother' Kobe Bryant and 10 other 'gold and purple' legends

BARCELONA, 6 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former Spanish player Pau Gasol will be the twelfth player with a retired shirt in the Los Angeles Lakers starting this Tuesday (early Wednesday morning in Spain), when the Los Angeles franchise hangs the '16' of Sant Boi de Llobregat at the top of the Crypto. com Arena --historic Staples Center--, next to the '8' and '24' of his 'brother' Kobe Bryant and together with the rest of the 'gold and purple' legends.

Some will say that six and a half seasons cannot be that long. That two rings are nothing to enter the annals of history. But the truth is that Pau Gasol Sáez, at 42, will see his figure honored by the Lakers he made, along with Kobe Bryant, two more NBA winners.

Without Pau Gasol, who arrived to cover the huge gap left by a Shaquille O'Neal whose '34' is also on the roof of the Los Angeles fiefdom, the Lakers would not have won the 2009 and 2010 championships, and was close to putting on three rings (It would have been the first, in 2008) in his gigantic hand, as big as a heart that conquered the Lakers fans.

The arrival of Gasol to the team rejuvenated a Kobe Bryant who could not pull the car alone. The Lakers, ousted and on a kind of journey through the Californian desert, found in Pau Gasol and in his natural connection with Kobe Bryant the path to success, towards those 2 rings that increased the record of the most successful franchise in the NBA.

For this reason, the sports team, but also because of his civic work and help to the Los Angeles community, because of how deeply he touched many of his teammates led by the late Kobe Bryant -- with a personal and family relationship beyond the clues--, for all this, the Spanish center deserves to see his '16' at the top of the old Staples, without ever being used by any other player.

The current owner of the Lakers, Jeanie Buss, assured that the withdrawal of Pau Gasol's '16' was not in doubt and that it was a matter of finding the right moment to do it. "It was not about giving a reason but about choosing the moment, it was clear that we were going to do it," she told the media.

The act of withdrawal will be at dawn from Tuesday to Wednesday (at 4:00 am in Spain), coinciding -with nothing random on the part of the Lakers- with the visit of the Memphis Grizzlies to Los Angeles, the first team of Pau Gasol in the NBA.

Pau Gasol is the first Spanish player to have his jersey removed in the NBA, and only the seventh European player behind stars such as the Serbian Drazen Petrovic, the first, the French Tony Parker or the German Dirk Nowitzki, the last to achieve it.

At the top of the historic Staples, now for reasons of Crypto.com Arena sponsorship, Pau Gasol will be eternal and will take care of the Lakers alongside George Mikan (number 99), Wilt Chamberlain (13), Elgin Baylor (22), Gail Goodrich (25), Magic Johnson (32), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (33), James Worthy (42), Jerry West (44), Jamaal Wilkes (52), Shaquille O'Neal (34) and Kobe Bryant (8 and 24 ), the 'older brother' of Pau Gasol.